The Uttar Pradesh government is working on proposal for developing all the 762 urban local bodies of the state as part of its series of initiatives to make the state a trillion-dollar economy in the next five years.

Currently, all the municipal corporations, including the ten smart cities present in the state, are rapidly being developed into safe and smart cities.

According to the Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, the development of cities is based on three pillars of sustainable growth-social, environmental and economic.

In the development of cities, the Yogi Adityanath government is prioritising education, healthcare, employment, business, general infrastructure, clean drinking water, hospitals, electricity, roads and housing in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mission to Movement’.

With the aim to turn every developmental programme into a mass movement, the UP government is focusing on development of all 762 cities of the state on the lines of smart cities.

The chief secretary said the government’s concept of smartness was all about ‘getting more from less’, which meant optimising resources.

It involves paying special attention to technology along with infrastructure. For example, all the smart cities and municipal corporations in the state have already been integrated with the Integrated Control and Command Centre (ICCC). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICCC system did an excellent job.

He said the social sustainability aims to involve the common people in the development process. “People should actively participate in development projects, understand the importance of the environment, connect development activities with our ancient Indian values and become participants in the development work,” he added.

It is noteworthy that Uttar Pradesh has a network of rivers, mostly originating from the Himalayas, which have water throughout the year. However, many rivers had become lifeless with the weakening of the connection of people with the rivers and turned into dumping grounds for waste and industrial pollution. With the efforts of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, however, more than 50 rivers of Uttar Pradesh have been revived in the recent past.

Similarly, many ponds and lakes that were almost dead have been transformed into Amrit Sarovars with the initiative of the Yogi government. Amrit Vans have also been established near them while ghats have been built along the ponds.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. The Uttar Pradesh government is also committed to making people’s lifestyle environment-friendly in the state,” Mishra said.

He said that we should not deplete our resources. The government’s emphasis was on bringing about behavioural change among the public to enhance environmental sustainability by following the principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling of resources’’.

He further said that the government's complete focus was on creating new systems through innovation in economic sustainability. At present, there was a rapid increase in the desire among the youth of the state to innovate. Thus, new start-ups were emerging rapidly.

“Apart from sectors related to technology, such as horticulture, automobile, power, road, and real estate, innovations are happening on a wide scale in every field. Sustainability comes into play when innovations are aligned with society and the environment. The government is working on the sustainable development of society, the environment, and the economy as a whole,” he said.