New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) India has led the action on climate change under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday and asserted that the country’s urbanisation journey is a success story that has become a blueprint for other countries.
Speaking at the inaugural session of UrbanShift Forum (Asia), the Union housing and urban affairs minister said India anchored the discourse on sustainable urbanisation under its widely-lauded G20 presidency.
Puri delved into various schemes of the ministry that are leading the path towards development of urban spaces in a sustainable and inclusive manner, according to a statement.
He said almost 11.9 million homes have been sanctioned and nearly 7.7 million houses already delivered to beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban.
Puri also spoke about the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, which has resulted in a behavioural shift towards cleanliness, according to the statement.
“Around 7.36 million individual and community toilets have made India’s cities and towns ODF (Open Defecation Free). Solid waste processing has gone up from 17 per cent in 2014 to 75 per cent today. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0, 326 garbage dump sites have been remediated and 42.6 million tonnes of waste reduced,” he said.
Elaborating on the success of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Mission, the minister said nearly 14 million water tap connections and 13.5 million sewer lines have been provided in 500 cities, accounting for 60 per cent of India’s population.
In a significant step towards ease of life, 6,069 projects worth more than USD 13 billion have been completed under the Smart Cities Mission, embedding a culture of innovation and excellence, the statement said.
“India has led action on the issue of climate change under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the minister said, adding that his ambitious Panchamrit Action Plan is the anchor for “our climate response, with the thrust of our response centred on our rapidly urbanising cities”.
“Our journey of urbanisation is a success story that has become a blueprint for other countries to learn from, particularly the Global South,” the statement quoted Puri as saying.
According to the Union housing and urban affairs ministry, the forum’s key objective is to provide training and capacity-building to regional cities on various facets of integrated and sustainable urban development.
At the opening plenary session, key urban issues in the Asian region were discussed by a high-level panel as well as other participants while focusing on strategies to overcome obstacles and to transform Asian cities into “cities of opportunity”.
Several regional leaders spoke about their vision and policy directions in the coming decades for enhanced ambition and accelerated climate actions in Asian cities, the statement added. PTI BUN SZM
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