This time, Chandigarh overall got a score of 54.40 in the EOLI while the city scored 47.41 overall in the Municipal Performance Index.(Express Photo by Jaipal Singh) CHANDIGARH RANKED 29th in the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) and 23rd in the Municipal Performance Index (MPi) 2020, results of which were announced here Thursday afternoon. The final rankings were announced by Minister of State (Independent charge) Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep S Puri.
In Ease of Living Index rankings in 2018, Chandigarh had ranked 5th while the Municipal Performance Index has been introduced for the first time. Last year, EoLI was not announced.
This time, Chandigarh overall got a score of 54.40 in the EOLI while the city scored 47.41 overall in the Municipal Performance Index.
Bengaluru topped the Ease of Living Index with 66.70 score followed by Pune and Ahmedabad in Million plus category while Indore topped in Municipal Performance Index followed by Surat and Bhopal.
Chandigarh Municipal Commissioner Corporation K K Yadav said that in MPI, they are lagging in certain parameters like they don’t have dedicated powers of certain services.
“Second, a major factor in finance was the revenue generation and in that they don’t consider grant in aid. Our revenue generation upto March 2020 was around Rs 240 crore while committed expenditure was very high. So all these factors matter,” he said.
In the EoLI, Yadav said: “Many parameters like economic activities, ease of doing business, industries coming up were included.”
EASE OF LIVING INDEX
According to the Government of India, the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) is an assessment tool that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development.
“It provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities across India based on quality of life, economic-ability of a city, and its sustainability and resilience. The assessment also incorporates the residents’ view on the services provided by city administration through a Citizen Perception Survey,” it was said.
In the indicator of quality of life, Chandigarh scored 54.42 while economic ability was 9.90. In sustainability criteria, Chandigarh scored 60.12, in citizen perception survey it got 72.8.
WEIGHTAGE IN THE INDEX
This time, there was also a Citizen Perception Survey in the index, holding a weightage of 30 per cent. It was said that it examines the outcomes that lead to existing living conditions through pillars of quality of life, economic ability, sustainability, spanning across 13 categories of education, health, housing and shelter, WASH and SWM, mobility, safety and security, recreation, level of economic development, economic opportunities, environment, green spaces, and buildings, energy consumption, and city resilience, that account for 70% of the overall outcome.
CITIZEN PERCEPTION SURVEY
In the citizen perception survey, Chandigarh got a score of 72.80. It was stated that the Citizen Perception Survey (CPS) was undertaken to help validate citizens’ experience of their city in terms of service delivery. The assessment was conducted from January 16, 2020, till March 20, 2020.
A total of 32.2 lakh citizens from 111 cities participated in the survey. The methodology and approach for the revised edition of EoLI and MPI were released by MoHUA in February 2019.
The government stated that the EoLI primarily seeks to accelerate India’s urban development outcomes, including the achievement of sustainable development goals.
“The findings from the index can help guide evidence-based policy-making. It also promotes healthy competition among cities, encouraging them to learn from their peers and advance their development trajectory,” it was said in a statement released.
LOW SCORE IN PLANNING AND FINANCE
For the first time this year, the government also launched the Municipal Performance Index (MPI) in which Chandigarh got an overall score of 47.47 in municipal performance.
In the category of services under MPI, Chandigarh scored 60.69 while in finance it scored 48.68. In technology, it got a score of only 32.77 while in planning it scored only 26.77. Under governance in this category, it got a score of 54.19.
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 Where the government said that 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 GoI said.
The framework covered as many as 20 varied sectors that is Education, Health, Water and Wastewater, SWM & Sanitation, Registration & 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.