Is Jaipur a ‘Smart City’ or ‘World-Class City’? Well! It depends on which party is in power in the state. Irrespective of the terms, the city’s condition on the ground remains largely the same. Its roads are encroached and public transport facilities are stretched. In summers, people still face drinking water crisis and power supply can go off anytime. Abandoned bovines freely roam on the roads and monkeys continue to be a menace in the residential areas. Children struggling to find open spaces or playgrounds is common problem everywhere.The criminals too can strike at will, snatching away gold chains from women or cash from businessmen. Burglaries and gang wars keep hitting the headlines. Politicians in power and the authorities, nonetheless, try to paint a rosy picture of the Pink City.With the assembly elections announced and political parties having declared their candidates, residents in the state capital are hearing new promises and assurances of development each day from the wannabe lawmakers. While grand promises are announced daily in election rallies, the locals actually want their basic amenities to be in place. For most part of the year, the Jaipur Municipal Corporation is unable to keep its sanitation workers on duty. The Jaipur Development Authority is lingering on regularizing residential colonies that settled decades back.“For more than 24 years, people in Prithviraj Nagar are struggling to get JDA allotment letters. Neither the authorities nor their political bosses are serious about settling the matter. Politicians then turn it into an election issue and forget all about it once the polls are over,” said Pradyuman Singh, a resident. People in the Walled City have been battling traffic jams on a daily basis. Be it for the metro work or for ‘smart city’ projects, the area’s main roads remained dug up for nearly five years. Shopkeepers complain about losing businesses as people started avoiding the congested markets. “Going to office and returning home has become a herculean task for us in the old city,” said Harish Sharma, a resident of Purani Basti.The city has nine assembly constituencies. In the 2013 polls, BJP won from eight of these, while one (Amber) went to NPP. Navin Pilania, who is the sitting MLA from Amber, has now joined BSP and is in the contest once again from the constituency. BJP’s three ministers—Kali Charan Saraf, Rajpal Singh Shekhawat and Arun Chaturvedi—too are once again in race.The Congress has changed some of its candidates. Former Jaipur Lok Sabha MP Mahesh Joshi will now contest against BJP’s Surendra Pareek from Hawa Mahal. New faces Pushendra Bhardwaj and Rafeeq Khan have been given a chance from Sanganer and Adarsh Nagar constituencies, respectively.The capital city’s residents have once again got into the election mode keeping hopes alive that one day Jaipur would become a ‘Smart City’ or ‘World-Class City.’

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