GUWHATI / AGARTALA, Dec 6 (TIWN): The Smart City project of the NDA government will lead to migration of villagers and the Centre should instead develop “smart villages” to bridge the urban-rural divide .Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said that the centre should lay emphasis on creating "smart villages" across the country as one of the ways to check large-scale migration of rural population to urban centres.

Smart Cities will lead to migration "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is talking about smart cities. I am for smart villages because I believe this is the only way to stop migration of rural folks to urban centres in search of livelihoods," Gogoi said at the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO)'s northeast chief ministers conclave here on Saturday.

The union urban development ministry has selected six Northeast state capitals for the centre's smart cities mission. For Arunachal Pradesh, Pasighat has been selected under the mission. The state capital selected are Assam' Guwahati, Meghalaya's Shillong, Nagaland's Kohima, Tripura's Agartala, Mizoram's Aizawl and Manipur's Imphal.

 The chief minister has been critical of NDA's smart cities scheme. Earlier too, Gogoi had said that his government's thrust is more on creating smart villages.

 In his Independence Day speech, Gogoi had said, "Our government feels that smart city can develop only if we have smart villages, which alone can help us maintain a healthy growth pattern. My government wants to make all villages smart villages. We are also planning to set up a Rural Planning and Development Authority." 

Expressing concern over the sex ratio discrepancy in many parts of country, the chief minister said Northeast is still better off in terms of empowerment of women.

 "The yardstick of nation's progress is how much women are empowered. My first priority after coming to power was to ensure women get proper representations in local bodies. That is why we have made 33 per cent reservation in panchayat bodies for women," Gogoi said