UD Minister attends National Urban Convention at Delhi

Urban Development Minister Vikramaditya Singh participated as Guest of Honour and Panelist in the National Urban Convention 2024 organised by the Praja Foundation at New Delhi today.  Urban Governance Index 2024 was also launched on the occasion.

Speaking in the discussion on Reimagining Municipal Governance, Vikramaditya Singh said that about 10 percent of population in Himachal Pradesh resides in urban areas and State Government strives to transform them as vibrant and developed urban centres in coming times. He said that Dharamshala and Shimla are coming up as smart cities.

He said that State Government took an initiative to implement Urban Platform for Delivery of Online Governance (UPYOG) under National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM). This initiative aims to revolutionize the citizen experience of municipal public services by offering integrated end to end solutions through a comprehensive state wide service delivery infrastructure. He said that this would provide range of government services and information to citizens through a single digital platform for all 60 urban local bodies (One State One Portal) besides improving efficiency, transparency and accessibility of government services.

The Minister also assured the Praja Foundation that the department would study the good initiatives taken by states that have well achieved in the sector and take guidance in order to build a robust urban governance mechanism in the state.

He also underlined the need for international air connectivity and strengthening railway network in the state for fast urbanization and added that state has build strong road network. He also spoke about the initiatives being taken by the present State Government under the leadership of Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu especially for green hydrogen.

M. B. Rajesh, Minister of Local Self Government Kerala, Jaya Prakash Narayan, Founder and General Secretary, Foundation for Democratic Reforms also spoke on strengthening Municipal Governance.

Nitai Mehta, Founder and Managing Trustee Praja Foundation welcomed the Panelists and briefed about the aims and objectives of the Convention.

Senior officers from concerned Ministries, NITI Aayog and Representatives from NGOs attended the event.