Making a strong pitch to consider urbanisation as an opportunity to mitigate poverty and not as a problem, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday June 25,2016 said cities have to be strengthened through comprehensive and inter-connected approach combined with increased public participation.
Addressing a gathering after the launch of projects under government's flagship Smart City mission in 20 cities across the country, he said, "There was a time in our country when urbanisation was considered a big problem. But, I feel differently. We should not consider urbanisation as a problem, but consider it as an opportunity."
"People in the economic field consider cities as a growth centre. If anything has the potential to mitigate poverty it is our cities. That is why people from poor places migrate to cities, as they find opportunities there.
"It is now our responsibility to provide strength to cities so that it can mitigate the maximum poverty, in the shortest time, and adds new avenues for development. It is possible as it is not a difficult task," he said.
As the Prime Minister launched 14 smart city projects in Pune, and initiated 69 other works in other smart cities in the country, he made a plea for working in a comprehensive, inter-connected and vision-oriented manner and not in piece-meal.
"There cannot be a transformation as long as we take things in bits and pieces. We need to adopt a comprehensive, inter-connected and vision-oriented approach," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi added that every city has a distinct identity and the country's people "who are the smartest" should decide on how to develop urban spaces.
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