Ahmednagar (Maharashtra): Social activist Anna Hazare on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Smart City Mission, saying it was against the Gandhian philosophy of village-centric development and would lead to environmental catastrophe.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Hazare also noted that even after two years in power, the government was yet to appoint Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the states.
Speaking to PTI at Ralegan Siddhi, Hazare said he wrote the letter after Modi said while launching schemes under the Smart City Mission in Pune four days ago that urbanisation should not looked upon as a problem but as an opportunity.
Like Gandhi, Modi was also born in Gujarat, he said, adding, "The question that I have now is whether what Modi said was right, or what Mahatma Gandhi used to say is right."
The letter said that according to Gandhi, the urban development achieved by exploiting the nature is not sustainable.
The urban development was producing more and more carbon dioxide which was leading to illness, overcrowded hospitals, and the rise in temperatures which presents a threat to the very existence of all living things, it said.
The global warming was leading to melting of ice, rise in sea levels, posing threat to coastal towns.
"This is what the scientists say. Still, you say `urbanisation is not a crisis but an opportunity," Hazare said in his letter.
In an agrarian country like India, water needed for farming was being diverted to the cities, the letter said, adding that "it is a disaster".
While the water need of cities is growing, the dams are getting filled with silt, which reduces their capacity, he said.
Due to the lack of effort to prevent soil erosion in the catchment areas, all dams would "die" due to silting in 200-300 years if not sooner, he said.
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