Public participation crucial in city’s devt planning: Aseem Kumar Gupta

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: “The process of making a development plan for the next 20 years of the city is underway. The draft of this plan will be prepared in the next six months. The involvement of the public is very crucial in this process, and that should not be limited to the administrative officers. What common people want should be included in the plan. The reason is that the development plan of any city is its blueprint of sustainable development,” said Aseem Kumar Gupta, the Principal Secretary Urban Development Department.

He was speaking at ‘Manthan 2.0’ initiative jointly organised by Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar First, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation, Smart City, CREDAI, Zilla Vyapari Mahasangh and Marathwada Association of Small Scale Industries and Agriculture (MASSIA).

He said that the planning of development would be done in the city henceforth only through Municipal Corporation and Metropolitan Authority. “So, while making the city development plan, the surrounding areas should also be taken into consideration,” he said.

Aseem Kumar Gupta hopes that there would be urbanization in future in the direction of Waluj, Shendra and Bidkin, so, the development plan should be comprehensive and complementary to each other.

Appreciating the Manthan 2.0 initiative, Aseem Kumar Gupta said that this is the right idea at the right time for the sustainable development of the city and the process should continue uninterrupted.

Explaining the objectives of the initiative, the president of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar First- Prashant Deshpande, said that the city has many flaws while at the same time, it also has many strengths.

“As industrial progress is expected on a large scale, the speed of infrastructure needs to increase accordingly,” he said.

He said that the Manthan initiative was implemented to increase the participation of the citizens in the development of the city.

Convenor of initiative Mukund Bhogale said The focus of this year's Manthan is Data-Driven Decision, and today's programme is just the beginning.

He said that a detailed report of the issues that surfaced during the discussions would be prepared and submitted to the government.

Ajay Kulkarni, Munish Sharma, Maharashtra CREDAI President Pramod Khairnar, its city branch president Vikas Chaudhary, Zilla Vyapari Mahasangh president Sanjay Kankaria and MASSIA president Anil Patil were present. Umesh Dashrathi and Mukund Kulkarni conducted the proceedings of the programme.

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Mercedes' deal in 2009 showed the city’s branding

Aseem Kumar Gupta said that a group of young entrepreneurs took the initiative in Aurangabad in 2009 and bought 182 Mercedes cars together. He said that the bulk deal took the name of Aurangabad to India and the world map.