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The government on Thursday said almost all 100 cities selected under the smart cities initiative are progressing "fairly well" with some facing a slowdown in work due to Covid and local factors. The Centre's assertion came in response to a question in Lok Sabha by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who asked about "discrepancies" in the implementation of the projects under the smart city programme. Tharoor cited a comparison between Varanasi with Atal Nagar in Chhattisgarh, saying while most projects are complete for the former, only a few had wrapped up for the latter. In response to the question during Question Hour, Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said, "When you read facts and figures, you have to be careful." Sometimes, very little work is left for a project under construction to be completed but till the completion certificate comes, it will be shown as work under progress, Puri pointed out. "Almost all 100 cities are doing fairly well. In some due to the
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Tuesday said the Aligarh Smart City project should be fast-tracked as the city has to play an important role in realisation of the dream of 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat'. He was reviewing development projects in Aligarh division -- comprising Aligarh, Kasganj, Etah and Hathras districts -- through video conferencing from his official residence in Lucknow. Twenty-five projects worth over Rs 50 crore are underway in the division, the UP government said in a statement issued here on Tuesday. Adityanath said that Aligarh, one of the six nodes of the ambitious Defence Corridor project, is a hub of hardware manufacturing, including the lock industry, and holds immense potential for industrialisation and job creation in the state. The Chief Minister asked for a departmental review of the construction of a 'No Frills Airport' at Aligarh, the statement said. The CM asked officials to prepare an action plan to take ODOP (one district one product) scheme