Residents’ involvement bore fruit

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 28

It was a proud moment for residents in the industrial city after the Centre included Ludhiana in the top 20 smart cities’ list.

Though the Municipal Corporation officials had put in a lot of efforts to ensure that the city gets included in the first list itself, the aware residents’ contribution, too, mattered a lot. 

They participated and contributed by liking the facebook page, filling forms, providing suggestions at the official website mygov.in.

Expressing gratitude towards the residents, Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said cities like Amritsar and Jalandhar were in the race too, but Ludhiana remained on top for the simple reason that its residents contributed and participated with enthusiasm.

“Ludhiana was at an advantage over other cities as it scored the requisite 16 per cent weightage. Residents contributed with suggestions and problems being faced by them and this is what counted. We got around 40,000 likes on the facebook page. Apart from this, around 1 lakh forms were filled manually with several suggestions. The official website, too, got great response. Officials alone cannot bring a change unless there is equal participation of residents. And the smart city will come-up, based on all those suggestions,” Thori said. 

Ranjana Sharma, a home-maker, said she not only liked the FB page herself, but encouraged her friends and relatives as well to give suggestions.

SAD councillor Tanvir Singh Dhaliwal said initially it was a slow process, but gradually everyone pulled up their socks to make residents aware and participate in the smart city project. “Other cities like Amritsar and Jalandhar could not cross over the 5,000 mark (participation by residents), whereas we went way ahead. The NGOs, councillors among others also participated actively in getting the forms filled by residents and this bore fruits,” Dhaliwal said.