Days after getting elected President of the Governing Council of United Nations- Habitat, Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday shared the initial challenge he faced after taking charge in Nairobi. Mr. Naidu said that it was a tough task to bring Palestine and Israel representatives to pass a resolution without any opposition from the countries supporting each of the nations.
He said that his first success as a President of UN Habitat was to convince the members not to go for voting and instead hold talks and unanimously pass a resolution related to the developmental activity.
Speaking at a felicitation ceremony organised by a few prominent individuals here on Saturday, Mr. Naidu said that his election as the head of the Governing Council was a recognition of India’s importance on a global platform.
Urban development
He stressed the need to focus on urban development across the globe backed by a few statistics. In 1976, the 37% of the world population was living in cities and in 2016, it is 54.6%. By 2020, an estimated 60% of the population will live in cities, said Mr. Naidu.
He added that though the world’s cities occupy only 2% of the total land, they contribute 70% to the economy. He also spoke on the need to tackle issues like greenhouse emissions and global waste. “Urbanisation is a reality and irreversible,” said Mr. Naidu. “We are focusing on converting waste to energy and supplying compost to farmers directly. We want to improve public transport and discourage the usage of private transport. The urban agenda is to make use of the existing resources,” he said.
Those who were present included Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas and BJP MLAs G. Kishan Reddy and K. Laxman.
