Students of SPA draft climate resilient plans for 4 devt blocks in Madhya Pradesh

 Senior Correspondent

NewsBits.in

BHOPAL: A group of students of the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal have drawn up draft climate resilient plans for 13 selected panchayats in four development blocks of Alirajpur and Chhattarpur districts of Madhya Pradesh.

The plans were prepared by a group of 13 students after field visits to the panchayats concerned under a studio project, which is part of their academics. The studio was supported by UNICEF office of Madhya Pradesh under its work on climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR).

The climate resilient plants were presented before government officials at a dissemination workshop organised by SPA, UNICEF and state department of public health engineering (PHE) held on Tuesday. Officials from Madhya Pradesh departments of PHE, panchayat and rural development (PRD), tribal welfare, State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), Indian Meteorological Department, Environmental Planning and Coordination Organisation (EPCO), Disaster Management Institute, State Planning Commission, UNICEF officials from Delhi and Bhopal and representatives of NGOs working on disaster were present.

Speaking on the occasion, director of SPA, Prof Kailasa Rao M said "Institutes of technical excellence, such as SPA have prioritised experiential learning for its students, which is helping alignment of the institute’s capacity and capability with the societal and governance priorities of the state. In the coming years, we would like to coordinate more with various line-departments and institutions of the state government to plan such studies with specific focus on climate and disaster risk-resilience of human settlements. I am happy that this year, in partnership with UNICEF, the Environmental Planning Department of the Institute has made a good start in the 13 Gram panchayats of Chattarpur and Alirajpur districts of Madhya Pradesh."

Dr Sanjay Kumar Andhwa, Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C) of PHED, and his advisor K K Songariya praised the efforts and said the department will support the implementation of the plans linked to the PHED. Lokendra Thakkar, State lead of Knowledge Centre, EPCO said this is a good effort and said that we also need to look into cultural aspects as we make plans, as each district is unique.

Director of Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhopal, Dr R Balasubramaniam, also shared his insights with the students. Devesh Mishra of PRD, Saurabh Singh of SDMA, Dr George V of Disaster Management Institute and Kumar Ratan, State Planning Commission also shared their inputs and how they can support the way forward. 

Sarbjit Singh, Emergency Specialist, UNICEF India was also part of the workshop. He encouraged the young students for the work and said that it will be great if we can invest in more such studios to look at plans of the same districts on a continuous basis, with the aim to make a change at block level. 

Anil Gulati, UNICEF Communication Specialist and DRR focal point, Pankaj Mathur, UNICEF WASH specialist, and other officials from UNICEF were present. Rama Pandey, Associate Professor, SPA, anchored the programme and spoke on the process of this initiative.

Students who are part of the project include Justin Andrews, Anushi Gupta, Harshith B.N., Shaily Agarwal,, Nikhil Bhardwaj, Akasmita Chakraborty, Vishnu Prasad S, Abdul Ahad Khan, Lisha Taneja, Shradha Suman, Arathy S, Sharada Ganesh Iyer, Mrunmayi Snajya Poehnekar.