WOMEN’S SAFETY, SANITATION TOP PRIORITIES FOR MAYORS

LUCKNOW: Mayors of over a hundred cities who are in the state capital to take part in Saturday’s session where they will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they wanted to focus on issues of cleanliness and women’s safety.

Most of the mayors said on Friday that they wanted pink toilets (for women) to be installed in their respective cities and free sanitary napkins to be made available. They also said they wanted to strengthen safety of women and senior citizens, for which CCTV cameras needed to be installed. Besides, they want solutions for better solid waste management and control of stray animal menace.

Jhansi mayor Ramtirth Singhal said, “A smart city is a place where information and communication technologies are used to increase operational efficiency. It should include good roads, efficient water supply and safety for women. My aim is to improve the quality of life by providing best services to citizens. For strengthening women’s safety, we would like to make pink toilets available to them. We would also like cameras installed at every crossing and road.”

Umesh Gautam, mayor of Bareilly, said that a smart city must be equipped with smart facilities. “Maps should be passed online, and there should be minimum wastage of energy. For this, all streetlights should be replaced with LED bulbs. I also want to stop wastage of water and rid the city of strays,” he said.

Mayor of Moradabad Vinod Agarwal said that according to him, a smart city was a place where “citizens had no civic problems”. “The city must be well organised -- free of slums and open defecation -- with houses for everyone,” he said.

Ranchi mayor Asha Lakra added, “I am proud to say that Ranchi has achieved the 21st place in the sanitation index. We were the ones who came up with the concept of setting up modular toilets.”

Roshni Tirkey, mayor of Hazaribagh, said that solid waste management would be one of the biggest challenges for all cities striving to become ‘smart’. “We are here in search of the best as well as affordable technology for managing sold waste,” said Tirkey. Bholu Paswan, mayor from Chas, Jharkhand, said, “This conference is going to help us in spotting our strengths and weaknesses.”