71st National Town and Country Planners conference concludes
Make city planning more inclusive, think from local prospective: Minister Time to think about small and medium cities: BMC Commissioner
Bhubaneswar : Minister of Higher Education of Odisha, Shri Rohit Pujari on Saturday calls to make town planning more inclusive and sustainable which can accommodates all section of the society, specifically the urban poors.
Talking at the valedictory ceremony of 71st National Town and Country Planners Conference organised by Institute of Town Planner’s conference on theme of “Challenges for Urban and Regional Planning towards sustainable development’ at Bhubaneswar, He said that, “Cities need to be more inclusive and sustainable. We have to think about the poor section of the society like domestic helps, street vendors, labours and slum dwellers in city planning process. We need to focus on affordable housing and better amenities for them.
While calling to use globally recognised best practices on city planning, he has also urged town planners to think from local prospective and said that challenges here are different from other part of the world.
On this occasion, Commissioner of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Shri Vijay Amruta Kulange said that, “Time has come to think about small town and cities. We have to make these cities beautiful, inclusive, sustainable and liveable. In Odisha our urban infrastructure is emerging like anything specifically in Bhubaneswar.”
He said that we are working on how to monitor Bhubaneswar through smart applications and Odisha through ITC centres. We have started from sanitation point view on how to monitor development activities. He added.
Shri Pradeep Kumar Jena, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner, Government of Odisha, also addressed the need of development of Small and Medium Towns, and also mentioned to take into consider the aspects of resilience, while planning of cities.
Other dignitaries present at the occasion were, Dr. L P Patnaik, Chairman, Odisha Regional Chapter, Shri Milland B Patil, Former Vice President, ITPI, Prof Dr D S Meeshram, President ITPI, and lastly vote of thanks given by Shri S B Khodankar, Former Secretary General, ITPI.
Earlier during the second day of conference several technical sessions were held on the theme of Reforms in Urban Governance, Innovative approaches to Planning education, Experiences of Smart cities mission in Odisha. Lastly Prof V N Prasad National Best Thesis Awards and Prof Dr D S Meshram National Best Thesis Awards were given by the dignitaries.