By PTI
CHANDIGARH: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said Chandigarh will become the most disciplined and modern city in the country in the coming days as he inaugurated a slew of projects, including a state-of-the-art Integrated Command and Control Centre, in the union territory.
Shah was in the city for inaugurating as well as laying foundation stones of projects worth Rs 632.78 crore.
The projects that were inaugurated included the Integrated Command and Control Centre, a new office building of Chandigarh Housing Board, two government schools and an urban park. He also laid foundation stones of a college hostel block and a bus depot-cum-workshop.
Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit also attended the event.
Addressing the gathering, Shah said he was visiting the “city beautiful” after a long time and felt very good. Chandigarh is known as the “city beautiful”. “In the history of the modern world, Chandigarh is the most developed city in the category of planned cities,” said Shah.
He recalled that when he was young, children in Gujarat were given the example of Chandigarh as a planned and very good city. “When a city grows, its requirements also change and when times change, there is a change in needs and requirements. And those which do not change with time, they cannot keep themselves relevant,” he said.
He also lauded the Chandigarh administration for making a system for adapting this change. “And that is not only for people’s facilities, it includes security and environment protection also,” he said, adding that the mixed culture of the city was also taken care of.
Shah said that when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, he got many projects related to urban development implemented. He said Gujarat is among those states where urban population is perhaps maximum.
Shah said that after Modi became the prime minister, he brought the smart city concept to the entire country. “How modern cities should develop. How to do planning, how to upgrade facilities and to synergise those facilities and integrate them,” he said.
PM Modi brought the AMRUT scheme, solar mission and green city initiative. Shah said, “In the coming days, Chandigarh will become the country’s most disciplined and the most modern city.”
Speaking about the Rs 300-crore Integrated Command and Control Centre project, Shah said it will bring a change in the delivery of citizen-centric services. “It will lead to monitoring of citizen-centric facilities,” he said. “This command centre will work for bringing traffic discipline or for security,” he stated.
“People of Chandigarh should keep in mind that cameras will be watching your vehicles and after a violation, challan will reach home through email,” he said, adding, “with this, there will be an atmosphere of new discipline in the city.” He urged the administrator that a programme should be initiative so that school students are shown this command centre.
Under ICCC, more than 2,000 CCTV cameras have been installed in the city to keep a check on traffic violations. ICCC is also integrated with major citizen services, including water supply, electricity, sewage, solid waste management, transport, e-governance, parking and public-bike sharing, for an effective monitoring of services and data analysis.
Shah lauded the Narendra Modi government for the development of the vaccine for COVID-19 and its vaccination programme. He said 185 crore doses have been administered so far.
“The world is surprised at how the vaccination programme worked smoothly in the country with a population of 130 crore,” said Shah. He said even some developed countries sought Cowin app for use there.
“Many developed countries were worried over the third wave of COVID-19 but nobody knew when the third wave came and went in India because there was 100 per cent vaccination,” he said.
Shah said with the use of technology, the Modi government ran a successful vaccination programme in the country. “Modi ji held video conferencing with the chief ministers 22-23 times irrespective of party politics,” he said.
Shah also spoke about how the Modi government provided foodgrains free of cost to 80 crore poor people in the country.
The government used technology in providing foodgrains to the poor. He said foodgrains worth Rs 3.40 lakh crore have been distributed so far. He said this scheme has been extended up till September 30.
In March 2020, the Union government had launched the scheme — Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) — to provide free 5 kg foodgrains per person per month to over 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) because of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shah said that change was happening in every sector be it agriculture, industrial development, urban development, making the country a manufacturing hub, new education policy, rural development, facilities to poor people.
