Bhubaneswar, May 12: P.B. Anand, a faculty member from UK's Bradford University, was in the city to meet and discuss with officials of the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited aspects of inclusiveness in the Smart City Project.
Anand visited the Masjid Colony within the proposed Bhubaneswar Town Centre District (BTCD) along the Janpath, both of which have been selected for the area-based development as part of the Smart City Mission and held discussions with accredited social health activists, Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery and community members yesterday.
He said that addressing social issues and reaching out to the marginalised communities were the big challenges. "It is indeed a good initiative of the smart city officials to do everything possible to bring all sections of the society residing within the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District area into its fold of development," said Anand.
"Working with adolescent girls and building their capacity to help them lead a better lives is an absolute demand of the hour. It is difficult to achieve comprehensive development unless an inclusive approach is adopted towards development. We will be happy collaborate with the BSCL on research and other social issues in the city," said Anand.
In November last year, the BSCL had entered into an agreement with the United Nations Population Fund to make Bhubaneswar a Socially Smart City, which is part of the initiatives under the Bhubaneswar Smart City Proposal to achieve social equity through new urbanism in action.
"The project is aimed at promoting people-centric interventions through engagement of youth, especially women and girls, with focus on the most marginalised, to transform Bhubaneswar into a socially smart city. We are working in tandem and the response of the people has been overwhelming," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
The objectives of the project include developing a youth-centric and youth-led integrated social intervention model to support a citizen connect initiative. It will promote safety and security of girls and women in the city. The focus area remained the urban slums where the initiatives will be taken through community partnerships for the development of the vulnerable and marginalised population.
"It is a good move of the administration to involve the urban poor in the process of development especially when these people are planning a protest against the proposed projects on the Janpath. I hope that they will understand the need of these projects that will contribute to their own development," said Sekhar Pradhan, a resident of Kharavela Nagar.
