NEW DELHI: With a view to promote healthy competition among cities to improve the standard of governance and infrastructure, ministry of Urban Development will soon launch measuring of Liveability Index of cities. To start with, Liveability Standards of 140 cities including 53 cities with population of one million and above and Smart Cities will be assessed.
Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (Urban Development) said, “more than providing funds to State and City Governments, ministry of Urban Development is according priority for incentivizing implementation of reforms that have a far reaching impact on governance and service delivery.” He said this in New Delhi while addressing a World Bank organized knowledge sharing workshop on improving accountability for local governments.
Stressing on the need for decentralization and empowering of city governments, Gauba stressed that “Cities can’t be run and managed from state capitals and secretariats. They should be made to stand on their own for improving performance, responsibility and accountability”.
Officials said that the ministry has already invited bids for selecting the agency for carrying out the assessment based on the parameters evolved by the Ministry. The Ministry of Urban Development has come out with a detailed document on “Methodology for Collection and Computation of Liveability Standards in Cities” for the benefit of States and Cities.
Cities will be assessed on 15 core parameters relating to Governance, social infrastructure pertaining to education, health and safety and security, economic aspects and physical infrastructure like housing, open spaces, land use, energy and water availability, solid waste management, pollution etc. Cities will be ranked based on Liveability Index that would cover a total of 79 aspects. Officials said that the initiative will also help in creating better governance facilities and better infrastructure in cities and towns of the country.
Government officials and experts from India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are participating in the workshop for sharing respective experiences on decentralization and empowerment of local bodies.