Delhi, Japan join hands to fight city’s toxic air
NEWDELHI: The Delhi government on Tuesday extended its friendship agreement with Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture with a renewed focus on environment and tackling air pollution.
After signing the memorandum of understanding, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal raised the issue of air pollution in the city and said the agreement would help find solutions to the annual problem. “We hope to harness our further potentials in the spheres of environment and air pollution, being a major issue of concern with us today. We would like to have more exchanges of school, college and university students,” he said.
In the proposed agreement, other areas of cooperation that have been mutually emphasised are culture, tourism and heritage, education and youth exchange.
Kejriwal hopes that the MOU will help boost Delhi’s transport system. “We have the example of a fruitful partnership with Japan in the inception of the Delhi Metro and we hope to expand this cooperation in other modes of transport and their multi-modal integration,” the chief minister said.
As per the agreement, Fukuoka Prefecture will provide its expertise and engage in exchange programmes in chosen fields. To facilitate this, a ‘Twinning Cell’ will be created by Delhi government’s urban development department. The same will be operationalised by Fukuoka Prefecture. “Another committee will be formed to support the Twin- ning Cell and give technical advise to it. Through this, community participation will get an impetus,” an official from the UD department said. The department has been made the nodal agency for smooth cooperation between the two governments.
The agreement will also see a number of exchange programmes between the two governments. “Fukuoka has overcome the same problems which Delhi is facing at present. So, there are going to be a lot of exchange programmes in the fields of heritage, art and culture and environment,” another official at the event said.
“Not only Delhi government officials, but we are trying that students studying in our schools also get a chance to see how Fukuoka has developed,” the official added.
Fukuoka Prefecture was represented by the governor of Fukuoka Hiroshi Ogawa, chairman of Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly Akira Higuchi and senior leaders of the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly. From the Delhi government’s side there was deputy CM Manish Sisodia, UD minister Satyendra Jain, transport minister Kailash Gehlot and environment minister Imran Hussain. Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel and deputy speaker Rakhi Birla and other senior officials.