Kakinada: BJP demands appointment of CEOs to Smart Cities

Kakinada: BJP senior leader Duvvuri Subrahmanyam demanded the State government to fill Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman posts in three Smart Cities - Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Tirupati - as per the Smart City guidelines.

While speaking to the media here on Monday, Subrahmanyam said that according to Smart Cities Mission (SCM) guidelines, the Smart City Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) companies will be headed by a full-time CEO. Further, regarding the appointment of key managerial persons (CEO, CS and CFO) as required under Companies Act, 2013 and the eligibility criteria selection of these officials, the Ministry has outlined the process in its Advisory on July 4, 2016.

It is observed that in many of the Smart City SPVs, the charge of CEO has been assigned as an additional charge to an officer in the state government. He said that SPVs may therefore ensure appointment of full-time CEOs at the earliest to enable the Mission Directorate to achieve the intended outcomes in a timely manner.

The BJP leader said that the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs stressed the need for appointment of Chief Executive Officers for SPVs on full-time basis. He said that the previous Kakinada Municipal Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar held additional posts of CEO, MD and Director of Smart City corporation of Kakinada for the last three years. Similarly, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati Commissioners held the positions simultaneously. They violated Advisory No. 14/ 2018 issued by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, he said.

'When it comes to the CEO of Amaravati Smart City Corporation, the Commissioner of CRDA is holding the charge. No Smart City Corporation in the State has reached 50 per cent of its targets. '

BJP State spokesperson Yenimireddy Malakondayya said that the State government has ignored development of Amaravati as Smart City, but over-enthusiastically nominated two YSRCP activists as Chairmen for Eluru and Rajahmundry, which were not declared as Smart Cities by Central government.