On Monday, Minister for Urban Development, BA (Byrathi) Basavaraj, ordered the commissioners of urban local organisations in 10 major cities, excluding Bengaluru, to spend about an hour daily to identify black spots and take measures to guarantee cleanliness. Referring to repeated complaints about cleanliness in urban cities, especially about solid waste, the minister told the media that these problems need to be systematically addressed, and it has to be a constant exercise. Various infrastructure problems such as solid waste management, urban commuting, bad roads and footpaths, street lighting and others plague these 10 major cities. Basavaraj ordered the officials to address such issues immediately and warned that those accountable will be penalised for any failure. Basavaraj told the media that works have been given to contractors with a clause to deliver in a time-bound manner. They will be removed if they fail to honour the contracts. The department aims to strengthen the urban infrastructure under the Smart Cities project in Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Mysuru and Ballari. The minister said that they are expecting the Centre’s approval to include them under the scheme. The Mahatma Gandhi City Development project will be a game-changer for these cities. While Mysuru received a one-time grant in 2019, the other cities too have got allocations under the scheme and project works that are pending need to be achieved in a time-bound manner, he noted. The series of meetings were conducted at the KUIDFC office in Indiranagar, where the commissioners of Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Davangere, Shivamogga, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Ballari and Tumakuru took part. Senior IAS officers B B Kaveri, Ajay Nagbhushan, M T Reju and other officials were also there. Image Source Also read: Mumbai civic body seeks EC for 4 MW Deonar waste-to-energy plant