Mangaluru, Sep 30: The district administration on Wednesday September 30 urged the citizens to participate in the Smart City challenge and give their suggestions for the proposal to be sent to the union government. The district officials lamented that despite several meetings and publicity, the people of Mangaluru have not responded enthusiastically enough.

Addressing a press meet at his office here, deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim said, "Mangaluru city is in the list of 100 cities to be developed into Smart Cities. It is the duty of every individual to give feedback to enable Mangaluru to be selected in the list of top 20 cities in the first phase of the Mission. We have held many meetings in this regard but the people are not coming forward to give their feedback."

"October 5 is the last date to send the vision statement and December 15 is the last date to submit the Smart City proposal to the union government. Citizens' participation is the main criterion and suggestions can be given at www.mygov.in. Some people have started to give feedback. We have received a total of 320 feedbacks out of which 109 are through email. We have put up hoardings in the city. We will circulate pamphlets to every house. We have also started sending bulk SMS so that the message reaches at least up to 3 lac people. The district administration has announced Rs 1 lac for the best vision statement. If we do not receive a suitable statement, we will divide the prize money and the best four statements will be given Rs 25,000 each," A B Ibrahim said.

"We are starting TV shows where discussions will be held from September 30 with the officials, a NGO representatives and representatives from various organisations. On Sunday October 4 at 5 pm, we will have a public interaction in the premises of Mini Soudha. From this we will be able to know the people's points of view. We are currently in the third place as far as citizens’ participation is concerned. In the Smart City concept, citizens’ participation is very important. We have tried our best to reach out to every individual but people are not showing much interest," he added.