| hows keen interest in building Smart Cities Canada’s Minister Shri Ed Fast holds talks with Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu |
| Canada has strongly pitched in with the offer of its wood based high density house construction technology to enable India meet its ‘Housing for All by 2022’ target. This offer was made by the visiting Canadian Minister of International Trade Shri Ed Fast during his meeting with the Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu here today (15.10.2014). The Canadian Minister made detailed queries about the new initiatives in urban sector including building of 100 Smart Cities, Housing for All and infrastructure development in urban areas of the country. He sought to know the clear timelines for execution of these schemes and specific areas requiring technologies and investments. Shri Venkaiah Naidu gave a detailed account of various initiatives and suggested cooperation in respect of affordable housing, waste water recycling, sanitation and public transport infrastructure in urban areas and building smart cities. Shri Ed Fast elaborated on Canada’s expertise in wood based housing technology that enables multi-story construction that India can consider to meet its ambitious housing targets. He said, life span of such houses is about 60 years and is amenable for renewal. He also offered technology for waste water recycling. Noting that three of Canada’s cities viz., Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary figure among the top 10 smart cities of the world, Shri Ed Fast said, his country is keen to partner with India in an appropriate manner in building smart cities. The visiting minister noted that Canada is impressed by the new found sense of purpose and vigor in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and his country is keen to cooperate with New Delhi in all possible ways. Shri Venkaiah Naidu directed the Secretaries of his two ministries to examine Canada’s offers for firming up areas of cooperation before the meeting of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi with his Canadian counterpart during the forthcoming G-20 Summit. |
Winters are extremely hectic for Sushma Patel, a vegetable grower in Uttar Pradesh’s Chunar town. Her farm is in the fertile plains of Ganga where people grow three crops a year. But this is the only season when she can grow vegetables. And before that, she needs to manually dig out shreds of plastic and wrappers from her one-hectare (ha) farm. “This is all because of the nullah,” she says, pointing at an open drain that runs through her field, carrying sewage from the neighbourhood to the Ganga. “Every monsoon, the drain overflows and inundates the field with a thick, black sludge and plastic debris. We cannot even go near the field as the stench of sewage fills the air,” she says. But Patel has no one to complain to as this is the way of life for most people in this ancient town. About 70 per cent of the people in Chunar depend on toilets that have on-site sanitation, such as septic tanks and pits. In the absence of a proper disposal or management system, people simply dump the faec...