Telangana facing unique challenges, says KTR

Hyderabad, Oct 8 (INN): Panchayat Raj & IT Minister K Tarakarama Rao on Wednesday said that the new State of Telangana has many challenges and opportunities.

'We have a big agenda and lofty goals. We are a very urban State with 39 per cent people living in urban areas. We have unique problems and challenges. There is no panacea. We made a fresh beginning and we are confident of solving the problems,' he said.

KTR was the main speaker at the Plenary on redefining Urban Agenda ' Big Data / Big Challenges and Bid Ideas at the World Metropolis Congress today. He said inspite the State coming into existence only recently, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has taken upon himself the onerous task of making the capital city of Hyderabad as a global smart city.

'The Chief Minister is a firm believer that perfect data should be available to understand the needs of the people, to perfectly design the welfare schemes that suit them and to take the fruits of these schemes to the targeted sections,' KTR said.

Also, the whole data of 3.6 crore population of Telangana was gathered from village panchayat level to the metropolitan city of Hyderabad in just one single day.

'This first exercise was a resounding success and the inputs will be put to great use and the data will be properly utilized for the allocation of required funds in the coming budget session of the Assembly. The data will also be put to use to remove all sorts of inefficiencies in the governance,' he stated.

Observing that each city in the world has its own problems to be solved, the minister said that Hyderabad is unique in several ways and the issue that are to be resolved also need special focus.

He said technology is fantastic and use of accurate data imperative. He said that Smart Cities should offer smarter Citizen Services. 'Since challenges before us are manifold, intelligence gained from large olumes of macro data & analysis can help revolutionize Urban Planning and City functioning,' he said.

The Minister said that data helps us for providing better resource allocation, understanding needs, patterns and trends in citizen behavior, improvement of efficiencies in process, sector wise planning, Asset management, Environmental resource management, monitoring and evaluation and prediction / forecasting.

He said that the bigger challenge ultimately is the Government getting its act together so that it functions as one entity with each and every department in the know how with a cross functional inter operatability which is now a challenge.

KTR said that the data would be useful for better Revenue Administration, Urban Poor inclusion, Emergency response and Disaster Management and also Citizen ' Civic Engagement.

Mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias said that Metropolis would continue to play a vital role. He said this is his first visit to India and Hyderabad, the Mayor said both the cities can collaborate in many fields 'we can collaborate in many fields and to become stronger and response to major challenges'.

He said that Barcelona is a city of culture and innovation. The population of Barcelona is 3.2 million. He said we are the top level economic and industrial drivers. We underwent economic transformation we consolidated our strength as a Metropolis.

We have top level infrastructure. We aim to be an intelligent City of future and a city of Urban innovation. He opined that Metropolis Congress should promote new debates and come to conclusions to improve the quality of life of people.

GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar, Special Commissioner Ahmed Babu and others also spoke. Tim Campbell, Global Fellow at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Chairman at Urban Age Institute was the moderator.