The city corporation has been ranked 12th among the 51 city corporations in the country with a population of more than one million. None of the city corporations in the state has made it to the top 10 in the Municipal Performance Index (MPI). Chennai and Madurai corporations, however, managed to find a place among the top 25 with a ranking of 18th and 22nd, respectively.
The corporations were ranked based on the services they offer, finances in hand and its use, technology, planning and governance. Surprisingly, the city corporation, which stared at empty coffers for months together in 2017 unable to take up even repair works, was ranked fourth in the country in the finance front and 29th in the planning front.
The city corporation scored 58.84 out of 100 in the services front and 64.18 in the finance front, while the national highest scores in these fronts were 73.92 and 69.69, respectively. In technology and planning fronts, it could score only 28.03 and 36.12, respectively.
Senior corporation officials said they were studying the rankings closely and comparing the same with that of the top performing corporations. “We do have a lot of the latest technology, be it e-payment facilities, solar power panels and LED lighting, among others. So, we need to know why people felt we were technologically inadequate. The same applies for feedback regarding planning as well,” said a corporation official.
City activists, however, agreed with the MPI and said the corporation’s performance in planning and governance fronts was not up to the mark. K Kathirmathiyon, consumer activist, says, “It is because of its poor governance that unauthorized constructions come up. Planning too has to improve to avoid drainage leak and damages to newly-laid roads. It turned DB Road into a model road by widening pavements and reducing motorable space, that too when the vehicle population is on the rise.”
Pointing out that the corporation has always been facing shortage of funds and dependent on grants for bigger projects, R Raveendran, secretary, Residents’ Awareness Associations of Coimbatore, wondered about the corporation securing fourth rank in the finances front. “I don’t know how the rating was issued.”