New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that revamping urban governance should be at the core of the vision of the Ministry of Urban Development.
Modi, who on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting on urban development issues, emphasized the need to institutionalize special training programmes for urban administrators to systematically improve the quality of urban governance.
He also called for complete synergy between the ‘digital India mission' and the urban renewal mission.
“This should include objectives such as mobile governance, e-governance, solid waste management, waste water management etc. There is need for extensive brainstorming on these issues,” Modi said.
He said a special module on urban governance should be a part of the IAS officers' training.
“Once these objectives were clear, the programmes should be implemented in close consultation and coordination with states, generally based on the PPP model. Corresponding human resource requirements should also be projected and suitably skilled for this purpose,” he said.
He further outlined the details of his vision for solid waste management and waste water management in 500 towns across India.
“This would spur growth of organic farming, especially vegetables, in the area surrounding these towns, as organic fertilizer would be readily available. This would also lead to abundant supply of vegetables in the town, thereby reducing inflation, and corresponding spin-off benefits in health and tourism sectors,” the Prime Minister said.
Meanwhile, Modi also said the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan' should be linked to urban development in a big way so that there is a demand from the grassroots for total sanitation in cities.