President Estate to go Smart

NEW DELHI, May 19: President Pranab Mukherjee today launched a mobile application 'Monitor' aimed at turning President's Estate into a smart township.

Speaking on the occasion, he said Smart President's Estate technology solution will result in rationalisation through monitoring, education, better coordination and management.

"Measurable performance parameters to judge the performance of the different departments under the Secretariat would help in the incentivization process. This approach in urban governance where we recognize stakeholders for their contribution to public causes is noteworthy," he said.

Mukherjee said when he took over as the country's 13th President, he did not know that behind the imposing facade of Rashtrapati Bhavan, there lay a living and vibrant township of over 6,000 residents.

"This township is a micro-cosmic India where residents belong to different regions, pursue different faiths, and observe diverse customs, habits and traditions. The campus has a mandir, a masjid, a gurudwara inside; and a church across the road," he said.

He said his Secretariat picked up a plethora of work to make President's Estate a model township following a value-oriented governance model that is based on the core civilizational values of compassion and service to others.

"The scarcity of natural resources as well as trained and skilled manpower poses a challenge in governance. There is enough on this Earth to meet the need of the society as a whole, but over exploitation and greed could lead to disasters and catastrophe. In this context, technology is a powerful enabler to optimise the utilisation and management of resources," he said.

Mukherjee said the good work being performed in cities round the globe are measured on the basis of identifiable parameters like housing, income, community, education, health, environment, jobs, safety and civic engagement.

He said in India to monitor village and block level development, it is necessary to develop rankings for villages and municipal bodies on pre-defined parameters for generating competition as well as sense of participation among citizens.

"The engagement of citizens and other stakeholders is critical to the success of any governance project," he said.

PTI