Pune: Making a strong pitch to consider urbanisation as an opportunity to mitigate poverty and not as a problem, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said cities have to be strengthened through comprehensive and inter-connected approach combined with increased public participation.
Addressing a gathering here after the launch of projects under government’s flagship Smart City mission in 20 cities across the country, he said, “There was a time in our country when urbanisation was considered a big problem. But, I feel differently. We should not consider urbanisation as a problem, but consider it as an opportunity.”
“People in the economic field consider cities as a growth centre…. If anything has the potential to mitigate poverty it is our cities. That is why people from poor places migrate to cities, as they find opportunities there.
“It is now our responsibility to provide strength to cities so that it can mitigate the maximum poverty, in the shortest time, and adds new avenues for development. It is possible as it is not a difficult task,” he said.
As the Prime Minister launched 14 smart city projects in Pune, and initiated 69 other works in other smart cities in the country, he made a plea for working in a comprehensive, inter-connected and vision-oriented manner and not in piece-meal.
“There cannot be a transformation as long as we take things in bits and pieces. We need to adopt a comprehensive, inter-connected and vision-oriented approach,” he said.
Modi added that every city has a distinct identity and the country’s people “who are the smartest” should decide on how to develop urban spaces.
Stressing that the spirit of participative governance is vital, he said people of the cities have to decide about the development of their urban spaces as these decisions cannot be taken by people sitting in Delhi.
He stressed on increased public participation in deciding the course of development of smart cities and called for intense competition among cities to develop them as modern centres of growth.
“If we consider it as a problem, our approach to address it would be the same, but if we consider it an an opportunity we would start thinking differently,” he said.
Modi also took a veiled dig at the previous Congress governments, alleging that while they took the country on the reverse path, his government was finding new avenues to move forward.
Modi said smart cities should not be seen as a fancy concept since the mission is meant for ensuring availability of basic services to people though infrastructure including houses for urban poor in a comprehensive manner.
He referred to extensive use of digital technology in the smart city plans for improving the quality of governance and public services.
Expressing satisfaction over citizen participation in preparation of smart city plans, he said, over 25 lakh people have given serious suggestions to the government, which need to be taken seriously.
“Earlier competition was being run on who was left behind and who are poor. Ways were being found to move backwards. This is a government which is running a competition for finding ways to move forward,” Modi said .
The Prime Minister said it was not as if no work was done earlier or governments did not spend budgets, but wondered how some countries surpassed India in a short period despite attaining independence after it.
“I keep asking this question to myself and wonder. I discuss this with people and analyse old experiences…. if anyone is the smartest it is the citizen of the country.
“If the strength of 125 crore citizens is put to good use and their skills harnessed, they can do wonders. Then one does not require governments, the world will move faster on its own,” he said. (PTI)
