WHO backs plan to turn City of Lakes into a 'healthy city'

According to WHO, the concept of a healthy city is native to the countries in Europe, but will be implemented in many cities of India, if deemed successful here.

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal is called the 'city of lakes', for which, the World Health Organization (WHO) has started preparations to make it a 'healthy city'. According to WHO, the concept of a healthy city is native to the countries in Europe, but will be implemented in many cities of India, if deemed successful here.

Collector Avinash Lavania said that the Bhopal Health City Programme is based on five pillars, namely: water, sanitation, environment, food and health and is being implemented in collaboration with National Health Mission (NHM), Madhya Pradesh, Swasthya System Parivartan Manch (HSTP) and Swasti. A meeting of the departments and social workers was held wherein it was said that Bhopal had better health indicators than other cities. The health organisation, Swasti, found in a research that the city was the one with maximum potential one for the project.

According to the criteria set to achieve the target, alongside work on the set goals, the quality of the city's food and the identification and prevention of diseases caused by them will be worked on. While the plan may take up to eight years to complete, those present at the meeting called for improving the quality of street food. Emphasis was laid on improving the sewage system, drinking water supply and making the citizens aware of cleanliness.

The city faces many challenges including Tobacco and alcohol consumption, prevalence of malnutrition and obesity, road safety and civic sense, air pollution and behavioural aspects which will be tackled in the project. Abbas Hafeez, Congress' Media department Vice Chairman took a jibe at BJP and said that the party was all talk and did not care about implementing their announcements. He added that the city's unfortunate condition in 18 years of BJP rule was apparent and could not be hidden.

He expressed doubt on whether and for how long the capital would be able to hold on to its identity of being the city of lakes. Hafeez stated how long would the saffron party continue looting the public in the garb of the project. A BJP leader said that the condition of the state before 2003 was known to everyone, where the roads had turned into potholes and cries for water were omnipresent.

He added that his party emphasised on ensuring better facilities for the public and claimed that the roads and the electricity system at present in the state had made people's lives comfortable. He accused the Congress party of false allegations.