Smart city just a slogan, misnomer: Benninger

New Delhi, Sept. 28: Eminent architect and city planner Christopher Benninger said on Thursday that smart city was merely “a misnomer and a slogan”, adding that the government should instead concentrate on building cities that give a “decent living to poor people”.

Speaking at the third edition of Cyrus Jhabvala Memorial Lecture here, Mr Benninger said that a city should be able to provide all of its people with basic amenities. “If you read any municipal act of a state government, it talks about roads, potable water, sewage systems, street lights, footpaths, and maybe a couple of other points. “Any city which does that, which follows its state municipal act, and provides its people with these things is a smart city in my opinion. Not all this nonsense we are projecting. Smart city is a misnomer and it’s a sad thing we got involved in that,” he said.

He found liveability standard an “interesting thing”, which can measure the effectiveness of municipal plans, adding that through different parameters it is easier to see “how people managed earlier and how they are managing now”. The Delhi police on Friday arrested a man for allegedly seeking favours by posing as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s spiritual adviser. The accused, identified as Pulkit Mishra, a kathak dancer, was arrested by the police based on a complaint received from the Prime Minister’s Office. Fake documents were also seized from Mishra, who operates from Ghaziabad.

Mishra, a kathak dancer, landed in trouble for his greed to avail government perks and privileges by posing as an official of the ministry of culture, which landed him in the police net, said an officer from the Crime Branch o n Friday.

The accused has been running a Kathak School in Shalimar Garden, added the police. Based on a tip- off, he was arrested from Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh, by a special operation squad on