As the national capital polls are underway, whichever party comes to power, the industry leaders seem clear on the priority areas for Delhi. “There is an urgent need to address the challenge of growing pollution, ever increasing traffic gridlocks & lack of cleanliness, says Dr Naresh Trehan, chairman, Medanta and a leading cardiac surgeon. He and other industry leaders do seem to see thesehurting the national capital, Delhi.
On cleanliness, Dr Trehan is particularly concerned about slum huts and areas around poor housing. Increased focus on sanitation and cleanliness here, he feels, will help deal with and prevent health issues and spread of diseases, including tuberculosis for instance, that arise because of poor sanitation. He however puts dealing with pollution as the number one priority for the government. Apart from this, the growing vehicular traffic on the roads that is now choking the national capital.
Echoing these concerns, (Hony) Brig Dr Arvind Lal, executive chairman, Dr Lal PathLabs, feels better focus on cleanliness while also dealing with the challenge of pollution control has to engage whichever government comes to power post the elections in Delhi. He also feels it is high time focus was heightened on law and order in the national capital.
C P Gurnani, the Indian IT sector veteran and the former chairman of NASSCOM, who has been living in Delhi for past 40 years, also sees pollution, sanitation as priority areas though he feels water treatment and cleaning of the Yamuna river apart from a focus on building connectivity between the two airports in the national capital region should also be among the areas of top concern. From a tech perspective, Gurnani, who co-founded an AI focussed startup AlonOS, post his long innings as the CEO and managing director at Tech Mahindra, is keen to see greater use of artificial intelligence in the governance of the national capital. He is also for aligning the Aadhaar of the migrant population into the region so that they are better connected and their needs addressed.