Abinash Kalita
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs releases Municipal Performance Index and Ease of Living Index for 2020
GUWAHATI, March 6: The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) is the worst performing municipality body in the country and Guwahati, the gateway to the North East, is no longer a livable city. This has been revealed by the Municipal Performance Index for 2020 and Ease of Living Index for 2020 released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday.
GMC stood at the bottom of the table in the category of cities with a population of more than a million. Altogether 51 municipalities of the country in this category were assessed based on several parameters including health and education. GMC, scoring 18.14 on a 100-point scale, was ranked 51st.
In the Ease of Living Index, Guwahati city was ranked 46th. As many as 49 Indian cities were brought under the ease of living assessment in the more-than-a-million-population category where Guwahati scored 48.52 on a 100-point scale.
The rankings under Ease of Living Index 2020 and Municipal Performance Index for 2020 were announced for cities with a population of more than a million and cities with less than a million people. Altogether 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted in 2020. A Municipal Performance Index assessment was undertaken for the first time in the country.
It was launched as an accompaniment to the Ease of Living Index. It seeks to examine local government practice in municipalities across areas of services, finance, policy, technology and governance. It seeks to simplify and evaluate the complexities in local governance practice and promote the ethos of transparency and accountability.
Agartala occupies the top spot among the north-eastern cities and 11th nationally in the category of Ease of Living Index in the less-than-a-million-population category. Altogether 62 cities were assessed in the Ease of Living Index in this category.
Shillong was ranked 35th nationally, Gangtok 41st, Kohima 49th, Imphal 50th and Itanagar 53rd. In the same category Pasighat stood 55th and Aizawl stood 57th.
In the Municipal Performance Index in less-than-a-million-population category, Agartala was ranked 51st, Aizawl was ranked 53rd, Gangtok 55th, Itanagar 56th, Pasighat 57th, Kohima 58th, Imphal 59th and Shillong was ranked 60th. Altogether 60 municipalities were assessed in the Municipal Performance Index in this category.
In the more-than-a-million-plus category, Bengaluru emerged as the top performer followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore, and Greater Mumbai. In the less-than-a-million category, Shimla was ranked the highest in ease of living, followed by Bhubaneshwar, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere, and Tiruchirappalli.
In the more-than-a-million-plus category, Indore has emerged as the highest ranked municipality followed by Surat and Bhopal. In the less-than-a-million category, New Delhi Municipal Council has emerged as the leader, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar.
