PMC officials on junket to the Netherlands

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to make Pune a child-friendly city. For this purpose, civic officials will visit the Netherlands to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Netherlands-based Bernard van leer Foundation. 

The foundation has invited civic officials to attend its Urban95 Festival (a partners summit in the Hague, Netherlands). The initiative is being organised for the past three years to bring together some of the extraordinary city leaders, planners, designers and managers working across the world to make better cities for babies, toddlers and the people who care for them.

The purpose behind Urban95 festival is to celebrate and share the work done to date; to strengthen and grow the network of collaborations and advocates and dramatically accelerate the pace and scale of action.

PMC Chief Superintendent Dr Ramchandra Hankare, Environmental Officer Mangesh Dighe, Bhavan department Superintendent Engineer Shivaji Lanke will take part in the festival. On Tuesday, the Standing Committee approved the proposal of sending these officials to the Netherlands. They will visit the country from December 2 to December 5, 2019. The foundation will take care of all expenses during the visit. 

Child-related health, diet - malnutrition, green spaces development, air pollution, sound pollution issues will be discussed to find solutions for making cities child friendly.

The foundation has conceptualised ‘Urban 95 centiment’ (CM), under which children with and below height of 95 cm are considered as the target audience. The age group of 4 to 5 years of children falls under the concept.