Raipur, March 4
Chhattisgarh’s capital city Raipur has emerged in the list of top 10 best performing municipality among all million-plus municipalities in the first ever such ranking by the Centre.
The cultural capital of Chhattisgarh, Bilaspur, has been ranked seven among 10 best municipalities that have less than one million population. Raipur is also ranked seven in the category.
Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Housing and Urban Affairs announced the release of the final rankings of Ease of Living Index (EoLI)2020 and the Municipal Performance Index (MPI) 2020 here today in an online event. Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA and senior officials of the Ministry were present in the event.
In the Million+ category, Indore has emerged as the highest ranked municipality, followed by Surat and Bhopal. In the Less than Million category, New Delhi Municipal Council has emerged as the leader, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar.
Expanding the scope for the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) framework in order to make it more robust, a Municipal Performance Index assessment was undertaken for the first time in the country. Whereas, the Ease of Living Index measures an outcome of the indicator, Municipal Performance Index focuses on the factors that produce those outcomes. The latter serves in determining elements that prevent efficient local governance in service delivery mechanisms, planning, financial systems, and governance practice.
The Municipal Performance Index is an effort to assess and analyse the performance of Indian municipalities based on their defined set of functions. The responsibilities of a municipality span across a range of verticals that include provision of basic pubic services to more complex domains like urban planning.
The salient features of MPI are given below.
The Municipal Performance Index provides a granular understanding of a municipalities’ functionalities and the extent of their development and capabilities. Through the index, citizens can better understand their local government administration, which in turn builds transparency and generates trust among key stakeholders.
The framework covers 20 varied sectors vis. Education, Health, Water & Wastewater, SWM and Sanitation, Registration and Permits, Infrastructure, Revenue Management, Expenditure Management, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Decentralisation, Digital Governance, Digital Access, Digital Literacy, Plan Preparation, Plan Implementation, Plan Enforcement, Transparency & Accountability, Human Resource, Participation and Effectiveness.
The rankings under Ease of Living Index 2020 were announced for cities with a population of more than a million, and cities with less than a million people. 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted in 2020. The analysis categorises them into Million+ populated cities (those with a population of more than a million) and Less than Million populated cites (those with a population of less than a million) along with all the cities under the Smart Cities Program.
Bengaluru emerged as the top performer in the Million+ category, followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore, and Greater Mumbai. In the Less than Million category, Shimla was ranked the highest in ease of living, followed by Bhubaneshwar, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere, and Tiruchirappalli.