Hitting out at the previous Governments for allowing unplanned expansion of cities reducing them into concrete jungle Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the BJP Government has taken up Smart City Project as a ‘mission’ to transform nation.
“After India got Independence the then Governments had an opportunity to transform cities into a better living place. But they allowed it to rot. The unplanned expansion has reached such a position where people had to struggle for basic necessities. For us, Smart City project is a mission — the mission to transform nation,” Prime Minister said during a function ‘Transforming Urban landscape’ here on Saturday.
The function was organised to celebrate the third anniversary of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), AMRUT and Amart City Mission.
PM said the cities have emerged as the growth engine of the Indian economy as it accounts for 65 per cent of GDP. The five Es like Ease of living, education, employment, economy and entertainment as the bulwark of cities’ progress. The smart city mission talks about this only as how to improve the standard of living of the people, he said.
“The heart of the Smart cities is Integrated Command and Control Centre. Eleven cities in India have developed that Centre and very soon 50 more cities will have such facilities. This command centre will not only help in bringing down the crime rate but also help in keeping cities clean as it happened in Rajkot and Bhopal,” PM said adding that such facilities will soon be developed in important cities of Uttar Pradesh like Agra, Kanpur, Allahabad, Bareilly, Saharanpur and Moradabad.
laying down a strong development pitch ahead of 2019 elections and projecting himself as a champion for poor Modi said our slogan of sabka sath sabka vikas and spirit of team India will fulfill the dream of making new India.
“Our pledge to make lives of Indians simple and comfortable has become stronger after three years. We will give ‘pakka makaan’ to people who are poor and homeless,” he said. “In order to meet this target the government has approved 54 lakh houses in the cities and also provided more than 1 crore houses to people in villages,” PM said.
PM also attacked the opposition on chaukidar vs bhagidar (partner) debate. “I am proud to be a partner who shares sorrows of poor, shares pain of farmer and brave soldier who is putting his life at stake to defend our borders,” Modi said in obvious reference to Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s attack on him in Parliament during debate on no-confidence motion.
“The Opposition has insulted the spirit of ‘Bhagidari’. The Pradhan Sewak needs to be a Bhagidar,” he said adding:”I am son of a poor mother. I know what poverty is. I can connect to their sufferings.”
Without naming Akhilesh Yadav, he said between 2014 and early 2017 he had to really pester the then Government of UP to expedite Union Government scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. But those leaders were busy in renovating their own bungalows when we were working how to improve the living standard of people,” he said.
Realising that lucknow is the karmashetra of Atal Bihari Vajpayee he said that Govt is committed to speed up the policies which Atal bihari Vajpayee had envisaged. Vajpayee had dreamt of putting lucknow and urban centres on road to growth and modernity we only gave them speed, scale and quality,” he said.
On the occasion the PM also gave away awards to banks and urban local bodies of the country for their excellent performance. The best Smart city award went to Pune. The best innovation award was shared by Ahmedabad and Bhopal while Surat bagged first prize as Best performer.