NEW DELHI: The budget allocated to housing, development, and hygiene has shot up by more than 90 per cent during the last nine years of rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as per Union minister of urban affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri.
Addressing an event on the occasion of World Habitat Day in Delhi, he said, “PM Modi assumed responsibility in May 2014. 2004-2014 expenditure on housing & development & hygiene was Rs 1.57 lakh crore while during 2015-2023 expenditure was Rs 18-19 lakh crore.”
FLASH: Union Minister @HardeepSPuri commends the remarkable talents of specially-abled children in painting and art competitions at the World Habitat Day celebrations in Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi.
Joined by American UN delegate Shombi Sharp, celebrating their creativity and… pic.twitter.com/WDueqVWv3B
— The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) October 9, 2023
Drawing a comparison from the UPA government in the past, he said, “In 2014 the amount of urban waste which we reprocessed was 17 per cent, today we reprocess 76 per cent. In 1947, our urban population was 17 per cent in a 350 million population base. Today we are reaching 40 per cent urbanisation in a much larger population base.”
The theme of the event was “Resilient urban cities as drivers of growth and recovery”. He said, “We first introduced World Habitat Day 1986 in Nairobi. The theme then was ‘Shelter is My Right’ which is very important.”
Meanwhile, the union minister claimed that the metro network of India will be the second largest in the world by next year in 2024.
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Puri said that we are heading towards a more humane society. He said, “The debate earlier was whether you could approach right based development, today we take it for granted. The world Has come a long way, we are all working towards a more humane society.”
He said that India advocated for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rather than Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) since the latter lacked inputs from citizens while being focused on urban development.
During the event, Puri felicitated specially-abled children for their various painting and art competitions under different categories at the World Habitat Day celebrations in Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi today. He was accompanied by American UN delegate Shombi Sharp.