Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today expressed the need to recognize the farmers' contribution as he congratulated Subhash Palekar for receiving the Padma award.
"Happy to witness a farmer receiving the Padma Award for the first time. Congratulations to Subhash Palekar. There is every need to recognize the great contribution made by our farmers... Congratulations to all other Padma winners too," the Union Urban Development minister said in a tweet.
Maharashtra-based farmer Palekar, who is known as 'sage of agriculture', was today honoured with the Padma Shri for helping around 50 lakh farmers across the country for increasing production.
The government had announced Padma awards for 112 eminent persons on the eve of Republic Day.
In an another tweet, Naidu congratulated S S Rajamouli for Bahubali bagging the prestigious national award for best film for the year 2015.
"#Baahubali best film of 2015. Congrats to @ssrajamouli & his team. It's abt daring 2 dream big. 1st Telugu Film to be the best #NationalAwards," he said.
Implementation of competition-based smart city mission
has helped make a paradigm shift in addressing problems of the cities.
Naidu said the states and urban local bodies, known for the notorious 'business as usual' and callous and lethargic approach to urban governance, planning and execution, are now looking forward to recasting the urban landscape with a spirit of competition.
"For the first time, all statutory urban local bodies have been evaluated for the current levels of infrastructure and financial and technical and administrative abilities," he said.
Naidu said for the first time, 100 cities accounting for one third of the total urban population have come out with comprehensive action plans based on detailed assessment of infrastructure deficit, resource availability and capacity to mobilise resources which is "remarkable".
The government has already announced the names of 60 cities that would be developed as 'smart cities' and plans to a new set of 40 cities early next year.
Rejecting criticism that smart cities project was anti-slum dwellers, he said housing was an "important integral part" of the mission to take care of the slums and this denunciation has more to do with politics.
"The mission has taken off and is running ahead of schedule. Results on ground would soon be felt as the projects of first batch of 20 cities take shape. The mission is off to a great start and will be a game changer as we go along," Naidu said.
The minister, however, said converting the cities and making them better for living "cannot be done overnight". "It takes time. It's not like Aladdin ka chirag (Aladdin's lamp)."
The government set itself a target of completing the ambitious initiative by 2019-20. It is providing financial support of Rs 48,000 crore under the project with each of the cities being given Rs 500 crore.
Naidu said selected cities under the project will have features such as assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity, and e-governance.
