The polls to determine citizen choices for the smart city project got off to a low-key start on Tuesday.

The opinion poll campaign is being run jointly by the Oulgaret Municipality, which ranked among the 20 cities that made it to the first list of smart cities selected by the Ministry of Urban Development, and the Town Planning Department.

Distribution of ballot sheets

It is proposed to distribute ballot sheets among the populace and ascertain their views, ranging from whether they want the smart city to come up as a greenfield project, redevelopment or retrofitting exercise to the cluster of wards they would like to see being provides smart solutions.

Citizens can also record their views on what kind of “pan-city smart solutions” should be made the priority. They need to choose from among solid waste management, ICT and e-governance, CCTV surveillance across critical junctions including entry and exit points, Urban Mobility (Smart Parking, Intelligent Traffic Management, GPS-enabled Public Transportation) or Smart Meters and management in electricity and water.

Oulgaret Commissioner M. Ramesh has said that 50 or more boxes would be placed at vantage point and street corners across the city to enable citizens to cast their votes.

While one lakh ballot sheets are already available, measures are afoot to keep adequate stocks in the coming days.

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The MUD had, while agreeing to consider stakeholder requests for giving weightage for ‘pan-city smart solutions’ to extend the benefit to a larger section of the urban population, made it explicit that selection of smart city aspirants in the second stage of City Challenge Competition would be based only on merit and that the 20 shortlisted cities would not automatically qualify for financing during the current financial year.