Nagpur: On the eve of Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s door-to-door campaign from October 13 to 18 to ascertain views and expectations of citizens over ‘Smart City’ concept a meeting of office-bearers of Navratri Utsav Mandals was convened at Mahal Town of NMC on Monday (October 12). The meeting was also attended by Chairman of Standing Committee Ramesh Singare, Ruling Party Leader Dayashankar Tiwari, Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar, Zone Chairpersons Jayashree Wadibhasme, Manisha Kothe, Sarika Nandurkar, Senior Corporator and General Secretary of Khamla Sindh Mata Mandal Prakash Totwani, Superintending Engineer Shashikant Hastak among others.
It may be recalled, the NMC had on Saturday organized a workshop of its officials and employees who were imparted training in filling up the forms of citizens with their views and expectations of the ‘Smart City.’ Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar had announced that the NMC 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.
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. 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.’ According to Central Government guidelines, views of citizens have to be solicited mandatorily for developing a ‘Smart City.’
Speaking at the meeting of office-bearers of Navratri Utsav Mandals, the Ruling Party Leader Dayashankar Tiwari said that the concept of every individual citizen about ‘Smart City’ could be different. Some may prefer clean city and some may prefer development of gardens. The views and expectations of citizens therefore should reflect on the plan of the ‘Smart City.’ The NMC is making efforts in this direction. The Navratri Mandals have a golden opportunity to solicit views of hundreds of devotees who would throng Durga pandals during the Navratri festival. The Mandals should put up banners and distribute the specific forms to devotees and ask them to fill up with their views and expectations. The forms should also be accepted then and there only by the Mandals, appealed Tiwari. He also announced that through his Garba Mandal, 10,000 forms will get filled up while Prakash Totwani said that his Mandal will get 30,000-40,000 forms filled up during Navratri festival.
Municipal Commissioner Hardikar said that preparing ‘Smart City’ vision is the first stage of developing the ‘Smart City.’ For this, citizens’ active participation in this venture is very important. During Navratri, 5000-10000 devotees are expected to visit every Durga Mandal. The Mandals should at least make arrangements for filling up of 10 percent of forms. The Mandals should prepare banners with NMC logo and place drop boxes for depositing the filled up forms. The concerned NMC Zone employees will collect the forms from time to time. This process has to be completed before October 25, stated Hardikar.
The citizens can send their views and expectations of ‘Smart City’ and photos on following Whatsapp numbers.
- Zone No. 1 to 5: 721-91-20-001
- Zone No. 5 to 10: 721-91-30-001
Similarly, experienced and experts in different fields can participate by registering their names on 8080267799 or their views can be sent to the website nagpursmartcity@gmail.com.
All the Durgautsav Mandals can contact the Assistant Commissioners of concerned zones for collecting the necessary forms.
