- NMC to undertake door-to-door campaign from Oct 13 to 18 to ascertain the citizens’ views and expectations in developing Nagpur a ‘Smart City.’
Nagpur: The ‘Nagpur Smart City’ has started taking its dream shape, in a different way. Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar on Saturday announced that the Nagpur Municipal Corporation is undertaking an ambitious campaign to ensure active participation of citizens and ascertain their views and expectations in shaping the ‘Smart City.’ Accordingly, the employees of NMC will undertake house-to-house visits from October 13 to 18 and ask the citizens to fill up the specific forms noting their views and expectations of the ‘Smart City,’ said Hardikar
The Municipal Commissioner was speaking at a training programme of NMC officials and employees organized at Vasantrao Deshpande Hall on Saturday.
“Every citizen expects clean and beautiful city. The citizens and officials and employees of NMC have an additional responsibility to turn our city a ‘Smart City.’ A golden opportunity has knocked doors of citizens to express their views and expectations of their own ‘Smart City.’ A Smart City’ is not all about world standard structures and facilities but active participation of citizens in shaping their own ‘Smart City,’ stated the Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar.
Under the campaign, the employees in NMC’s 10 zones will fill up the forms from citizens in morning and evening hours. The training programme was organized in two sessions – 9 to 10 am and 10 to 11 am. On the occasion the Municipal Commissioner gave a power point presentation and guided the officials and employees on how to fill up the forms.
Other dignitaries who were seated on the dais include Chairman of Standing Committee Ramesh Singare, Additional Commissioner Nayana Gunde, Superintending Engineers Shashikant Hastak, Prakash Urade, Delivering Change Foundation, Pune Director Bobby Nimbalkar, along with all Executive Enginners and Assistant Engineers. The training programme was conducted by Shashikant Hastak.
In the meanwhile, the Mayor Pravin Datke held a press conference in his chamber and outlined the ‘Smart City’ scenario. Datke said, “In the ‘Smart City’ development project, in all 98 cities were selected across the nation to be developed as ‘Smart Cities’ in the first stage. Nagpur too was selected among the 98 cities. However, Nagpur Municipal Corporation is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that Nagpur is included in the first 20 cities to be developed as ‘Smart Cities.’ This is proud moment for all of us.
According to Central Government guidelines, views of citizens have to be solicited mandatorily for developing a ‘Smart City.’ For this vital exercise, help of Pune’s Delivering Change Foundation is being sought. With the active participation of citizens and public training the dream of developing Nagpur a ‘Smart City’ could be achieved,” asserted the Mayor.
The Mayor further said that the NMC is fortunate as it is receiving cooperation from renowned organization ‘CRISIL’ in preparing ‘Smart City’ plan to be submitted to Central Government. The door-to-door campaign to be undertaken by NMC is aimed at creating awareness on ‘Smart City’ at every corner of the city, interacting with citizens, soliciting their views and expectations, understanding different problems being faced by them, basic facilities and other aspects of ‘Smart City.’ The citizens should wholeheartedly cooperate with NMC employees in filling up the forms regarding their dream ‘Smart City,’ appealed Mayor Datke.
“The media, both electronic and print’ played a crucial role that facilitated selection of Nagpur in the first stage. The mass awareness campaign is the part of the process of preparing preliminary plan of ‘Smart City. If the form is published in local newspapers and the filled up cutting is submitted to NMC’s concerned zones, the forms will also be considered for their views, stated the Mayor.
