Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that the Central and state governments are prioritising urban development as the growth engine of development and a large amount of investment has been made for urbanisation in the last 10 years.
He asserted that the state government will cooperate with local self-government bodies if good schemes are implemented to solve the problems of the citizens of urban areas and provide them with better facilities.
The Chief Minister was speaking at a workshop organised by the Urban Development Department for the state’s Municipal Commissioners and Chief Officers of Municipal Councils.
CM Fadnavis said that Maharashtra is the second largest urban state in the country.
“The development process revolves around the city. Citizens are attracted to cities for four things: education, health, employment and entertainment. In such a situation, due to not properly considering the increasing urbanization along with development, a proper policy for urban development was not made and due to this, problems were created in the cities. Nearly 6 crore people live in 450 cities in the state. If these cities can be made beautiful, the standard of living of 50 percent of the people can be improved,” he remarked.
He emphasised the need to pay attention on the creation of primary health facilities in urban areas. For this, the schemes of the central and state governments should be implemented. Efforts should be made to provide good education to the children of the poor in municipal schools.
“It is necessary to regularly review the water supply and sewage management projects to ensure that they are completed within the scheduled time and remove the problems. It is equally important to set up a proper distribution system for water supply and start the meter system. The government will cooperate in such schemes to solve the problems of the people,” he assured.
“In the last few years, a large amount of funds have been provided for the development of the city. New ideas will have to be implemented along with adopting a new approach while providing goods and services. Urban local bodies will have to find new sources of raising funds along with paying attention to the collection of taxes. If emphasis is placed on the economic progress of the city, citizens will come forward to pay taxes. Funds can also be easily available from the private sector for good projects. In this regard, sustainable development of the city should be planned,” said the chief minister.
He further added that a well-planned development of the city can be done through a city development plan. If well-planned roads are built, the city can be made beautiful.
“All the Municipal Corporations and Municipalities performed well under the 100-day programme. If the newly made reforms are implemented at the institutional level, the administration will continue to improve. Now a 150-day programme has been planned. In this, emphasis is to be placed on the use of e-governance and human resource development . For this, the government will provide all possible support. Administration can be made more efficient by making reforms related to human resource and using technology,” said CM Fadnavis.
“It is necessary to accelerate development by spending the funds received from the state and the Centre on time and for which it is important to make full use of the digital system. There is a need to ensure quality by controlling the work through the use of technology. If various activities are implemented using technology in government services, it will be easier to prepare a plan for ‘Developed Maharashtra 2047’. Everyone’s suggestions will be useful for this,” he said.
In his speech, deputy chief minister and urban development minister Eknath Shinde said: “Municipal corporations and municipalities are considered important in the development of the state. If all cities develop equally, there will be no imbalance in development in the state, for which the problems in the cities will have to be resolved. As the pace of urbanization is increasing, the responsibility of providing facilities to the citizens has increased. Since more than 5 crore citizens live in urban areas, addressing the problems will have to be given priority.”
“Municipalities should work with a specific goal in mind and use artificial intelligence in their work. While ensuring that new slums do not arise in the future, they should also focus on community development. For this, emphasis should be placed on field visits and important project visits. This will ensure quality work. If the people are given the right houses, cities will become beautiful and well-planned. More attention should be paid to ensuring that there is no encroachment in cities. Cities can be made more beautiful by implementing initiatives like sewage management, recycling of treated water, waste to energy and a better public transport system,” said Shinde.
