Bengaluru tops ease of living index, receives award from Centre in virtual ceremony

BENGALURU: In the awards announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the Smart Cities Mission, Bengaluru bagged the first place in the ease of living index under the million plus population category. The awards were handed out virtually by the Ministry on Thursday afternoon.

Davengere was the only other city from Karnataka to be listed in the same category, but for cities with a population of less than a million. Davengere ranked 9th and Shimla was ranked first.

The award for Bengaluru was received by Member of Parliament P C Mohan, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad and Bengaluru Smart City managing director Rajendra Cholan from the Covid-19 war room.

Mohan and Prasad assured Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri that more works will be done and improvement carried out to sustain the progress. They also assured to strive to bring Bengaluru and other cities from Karnataka in the municipal reforms index, where none of the cities from the state featured.

Mohan on the occasion listed out the works which Bengaluru had done like being the first city to start a Covid-19 war room, creating cycle tracks and working on rejuvenation of water bodies.

Prasad listed out the presence of 1500 parks, 210 lakes, 151 primary health care centres and 34 referral hospitals for treatment of people.