INVC,,
Mumbai,,
The Vice President of India. Shri M.Hamid Ansari has said that the governance structures of our metropolitan cities differ significantly from each other. We have a distinct model for the National Capital Region. Other metropolitan cities are state capitals with their own Municipal Corporations. They experience competing claims emerging from diverse social, political and linguistic groups to appropriate urban spaces and opportunities for social and economic advancement. How the nation manages and addresses these claims is critical to keeping our urban spaces inclusive and preventing the metropolitan cities from becoming exclusionary and exclusivist. Delivering “ Yusuf Meherally Memorial Lecture” at Mumbai today, he had opined that we do need a public debate to ensure that our urban spaces remain ‘national’ in their character, that there is transparency and inclusiveness in urban governance. We need to ensure that our cities do not succumb to narrow or sectarian monopolies. Urbanization can not be prevented; it is in our own interest that we manage it better and direct it to serve our national goals and public interest.
Shri Ansari has said that the Equality of access to urban spaces, to availing of emerging social and economic opportunities, and to participation as equal stakeholders is essential to prevent social strife and economic conflict. Let all empower the third tier of urban local government in meaningful ways and let our cities not only survive, but thrive.
