Union Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ramesh Jigajinagi, on Saturday blamed rising population for the urban ills plaguing the country. Speaking at an event dubbed ‘Ideas Conclave for Better Hyderabad’, Mr. Jigajinagi said: “We can think and discuss. Everyone has a solution and ideas, but unless we are able to control the growth of population we cannot solve any of these problems. We have to address the population question first.”
Earlier, reading out from a prepared speech, Mr. Jigajinagi listed out the various development initiatives of the Narendra Modi government.
“In Telangana, the rural sanitation coverage is 70%. In the last three years, 16.97 lakh household latrines have been constructed in the State and the State has 3420 open defecation free villages. He drew attention to the fact that the State was provided ₹ 458.12 crore but spent only ₹ 386.60 crore in the sector.
Setting the tome for the event, B.V. Papa Rao, Advisor to Telangana Government chalked out the historical context of the city and the challenges being faced to turn it into a global hub for entrepreneurship and technological hub.
“The drainage on the other side of Musi near Charminar is still functioning. The area around the HiTec City has no drainage system. We are trying to develop that. But we need young people to think different. We have a large number of sweepers in the country. Why can’t we be a country that doesn’t litter?” asked Mr. Rao to the audience, many of whom were college students.
Decrying the lack of public aesthetics, Mr Rao said: “We blame the road conditions. But what is the condition of the apartments? The compound walls? We keep our homes clean but are not bothered about how it looks outside. We need to develop a sense of public aesthetics and sense of ownership before we can dream of having better civic facilities.”
The ideas conclave will end on Sunday after discussions on infrastructure, health tourism, town planning and security.
