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Delhi will be among world’s top 10 cities, says Mayor

NEW DELHI: Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra has expressed hope that the city would become one of the world’s top 10 in the next decade with all modern facilities and basic infrastructure in place.

Speaking at the valedictory session of an inter-university debate here on “Population and Development – Urbanisation improves Environment” organised by the Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, Ms. Mehra strongly supported urbanisation saying industrialisation and technology can together help in obtaining its advantages. “We have a metro railway system which is better than Singapore’s transport system. Also, we have the public transport fleet being run on CNG,” she said.

The Mayor also announced that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had decided to close all existing landfill sites in the Capital at the earliest. Conceding that there is a need to evolve policies to meet the needs of people, Ms. Mehra said while the task was indeed difficult, with some clear thinking and involvement of youth it could be effectively accomplished.

University Grants Commission Vice-Chairman Moolchand Sharma said the Central Government scheme of providing urban facilities in rural areas (PURA) is an answer to the ill effects of urbanisation.

“However,” he added, “politicians will have to take a call on PURA.”

Jawaharlal Nehru University Pro Vice-Chancellor R. Kumar said urbanisation had shown its ill-effects on social and reproductive health of the people. “But,” he added, “solutions to such problems can be found.”

The debate also saw participation by a large number of students from Delhi and outside. While the University of Bombay bagged the first prize in the debate competition, the second prize went to Baroda University.

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