Bhubaneswar: With an aim to get a fresh perspective from young minds about various civic issues and possible solutions, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) have decided to rope in a students’ representatives to know their understanding and suggestions on how to make Bhubaneswar a better and beautiful place in the world.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BMC) will soon write a letter to every government and private school in the city to select a student’s representative who can interact with the city officials about various issues they are facing and potential solutions, a source said.
The civic body is also contemplating that each student’s representative will be given a designation of Assistant Commissioner or Mayor to look after domains like sanitation, mobility, parks and open space, waste management and child-friendly city initiatives among others, the source added.
The students’ representatives will have to attend a meeting at BMC or BDA once in every two months where they can share their real experiences about living in the city with top officials and suggestions on how to improve services.
The student leaders can discuss and suggest changes to landscapes and interventions in parks and open spaces to make them more child-friendly, interactive, participatory and adaptive as per their needs.
BMC Commissioner and BDA Vice-Chairman, Prem Chandra Choudhary is keen to get students’ views, which are real and practical for improving multiple services being launched in the city as they are the major stakeholders of the city in future, it adds.
Earlier, several deliberations were also held on public space transformation of existing physical spaces into accessible places for children to play and explore nature, ensuring safe passage for kids to walk or cycle and a safe place to play and get food, etc.
It may be noted that Bhubaneswar envisions being the first child-friendly city in the country in collaboration with the Bernard van leer Foundation (BvlF) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
On October 2 this year, the BMC had launched ‘Mu Safaiwala’ campaign involving school students to raise awareness among citizens on sanitation.
