Delhiites lack sense of belongingness for city, should be more responsible towards it: LG V K Saxena

Despite being home to people from various parts of the country, Delhiites lack a sense of belongingness towards the national capital and should be more responsible to towards it, LG V K Saxena said on Tuesday.

Addressing the 15th convocation ceremony of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University here, Saxena said, "Delhi as they say is the melting pot of India. With people from all over the country residing and working in the city, Delhi is indeed a mini-India. This indeed is a matter of pride for the city."

"However, the flip side of this pride of embodying India is that our sense of belongingness and ownership to and for Delhi has diminished over the years," the LG said.

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Noting that people from other states hold on to and feel proud of belonging to their native state, Saxena said the feeling is missing among the people of Delhi.

"We will have to start belonging to Delhi and own it. We will have to start owning the river Yamuna, our gardens, streets and neighbourhoods," he said.

"We will have to start feeling responsible towards our city and proactively work towards achieving the goals of Delhi's environmental sustainability, rejuvenation of the Yamuna, management of civic issues and judicious utilization of our resources," he added.

The university awarded 24,181 undergraduate degrees, 3,833 postgraduate degrees, 32 MPhil degrees and 149 PhD degrees at the ceremony. In all 87 gold medals were awarded to meritorious students of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

The government will be able to fulfil its responsibility of disposing garbage, restoring natural resources, mitigating encroachments and providing better services, only if the people of Delhi stand up to the task of managing and taking care of Delhi, in the same way as they manage and take care of their homes, he said.

"I entrust you with the responsibility today to inculcate Delhi in your hearts as a city that you belong to and that you own. Let us begin with this campaign," he said.

During his address at the convocation ceremony, India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant presented data and statistics highlighting the massive growth achieved by the country in last eight years. He also elaborated the achievements of Startup India, which has seen more than 99,000 successful start-ups and 110 unicorns. Highlighting technology-enabled opportunities, Kant urged students to look ahead "with hope, optimism and positivity to make India a prosperous country".

In her address, Delhi Education Minister Atishi said that the purpose of education is to imbibe values in the students. She told the graduating students to understand their responsibility towards the less advantaged and less privileged.

Noting that India is ranked 132 out of 191 on Human Development Index, Atishi said even smaller countries fare better on parameters such as education, health, and unemployment.

"Today in the country, there are nearly five crore people who are unemployed, and the country has a youth unemployment rate of 30 per cent. In terms of healthcare, there are only an average of six ICU beds for every 100,000 citizens of India. There are only five beds and 8.6 doctors per 10,000 of its population in India," she said.

"Many students attend school but end up dropping out because they need to support their families financially. Today, more than 22 crore people are malnourished or undernourished," she added. Now, it is the responsibility of the students to change these figures, the Delhi minister said.

"As they have received better opportunities to study and be here, it is now their responsibility to make this country better and take it on the path of progress," Atishi said.

Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor Mahesh Verma highlighted that the university has remained among the top 80 universities of the country in recently released NIRF survey. The university was ranked 74 in the survey, while its School of Law was ranked 19 on the list.

Verma also pointed out that the university has established a separate school of Ayush to promote Indian knowledge systems.