NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Elets Knowledge Exchange Goa- National Summit on Smart Cities has been organised to change, improve, and create India, said Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
Addressing the gathering of IT experts, after formally inaugurating the 2-day session by lighting a ceremonial lamp, Parsekar said that “this seminar is a part of ‘Digital India,’ linked to smart city project wherein all stakeholders would exchange their treasure trove and vision.
The Chief Minister said that success, in any project, does not come by accident, but it is achieved through the efforts put in by all stakeholders, and added that the deliberations will help ‘Digital India’ move ahead and make the dream of Prime Minister come true.
While the Maharashtra’s Minister for Rural Development, Finance and Planning, Deepak Kesarkar, said that ‘Digial India’ is the only solution for resolving the problems being encountered by the states, adding “we have 29,000 village panchayats and 40,000 villages. We started a unique programme called ‘Sangram’ at village- level connecting panchayats, ZPs and finally the main centre.”
Kesarkar advised the government to provide people clear cut idea about the projects before involving them.
He said that all the departments are using our data, adding “if you do it properly, it will fetch results.”
“It is dream project of our Prime Minister, so we have to put our heart and soul into it, We have selected 10 cities – Sholapur and others, and Maharashtra Chief Minister is computer savvy and offered all cities Rs 100 crore each in addition to central government grants,” he added.
While, Secretary of Urban Development Sudhir Mahajan said that the smart cities will improve quality of urban life.
Panaji MLA Sidharth Kunkalienkar said that “Panaji will best among the smart cities being blended with yesterday, today and tomorrow,” and urged the visiting IT experts to explore the city.
Kunkalienkar further said that the population of the city is less than a lakh, “but we took views of 35 per cent the population on the kind of smart city they want for smart living.”
Earlier, many IT professionals Peeyush Kumar, Shashi Rajan Kumar, George Kuruvilla, Revati Majumdar and Aejaz Saiyed spoke on various topics ranging from smart phones, animated movies and many more.