NSUD 2013 - National Seminar on URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH EAST INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: PROBLEMS & PROSPECTS

The trend to move to and concentrate in urban areas is a historical phenomenon not only in India but also throughout the globe. As urban areas are the loci of all round development, therefore it inevitably pulls people from different places. At the same time concentration of these migrated people in urban areas makes the urban society a heterogeneous, fragmented, stratified and polluted. Hence, an urban society undergoes transition, trauma, threats and pollution. Industrialization, on the other hand, sucks in people irrespective of differences, either social or cultural, and that is one of the many reasons for the growing slums, criminal activities, infrastructural problems, problems of traffic congestion and health hazards, environmental degradation and intervention of different political groups complicates the problems and pollutes the socio-political environment.
To work towards a sustainable development of the locus of progress, that is the urban society is an urgent need of the hour. Without developing the industrial-urban society where solid disposals pollute the air, we cannot take the country forward in the path of progress. Therefore, roles of administrators, planners and policy makers are the vital ones not only to minimize the various urban problems but also to maximize the tempo and magnitude of urban development. Education here plays a very significant role.
North East India, which was primarily rural before independence, has been gradually moving towards urbanisation. A number of small & medium towns and industrial zones have come to exist after independence as generative and parasite cities. The disposals of solid wastes from these places tremendously create serious environmental problems. Naturally the urban locations of north east India seem to be progressive on the one hand, and on the other this very process has resulted in disturbances of various kinds in these regions. Therefore, this National Seminar proposes to shed light on problems related to the urban areas and their development in all its ramifications and to usher in a sustainable growth.