SHILLONG: Following reports highlighting Shillong's poor performance in the smart city initiative, a national study has revealed that Meghalaya ranks as the third lowest-performing state in urban governance, trailing behind Nagaland and Manipur.
The findings released by Praja Foundation on Thursday show that Shillong is wanting on several key indicators of urban governance. This is a comprehensive report that emerges from every-other-yearly analysis involving ground visits that were conducted by research teams to 43 cities in 28 states and three Union Territories.
In the last two years, the researchers had engagement with 2,213 stakeholders, including those who belong to the elected politicians, administrators, the academia, civil societies, media, and experts in urban governance as well as policy.
The four key dimensions of the Urban Governance Index are: empowered city elected representatives and legislative structures; empowered city administration; engaged citizens; and fiscal empowerment. For every one of these categories, 13 sub-themes are released to encompass a total of 42 indicators.
The report, jointly released by the Mumbai-based Praja Foundation and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), ranks cities and states according to their performance in urban governance while identifying critical gaps in civic administration. Kerala stood first among the states with the best performing record in urban governance, followed very closely by Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. Nagaland, Manipur, and Meghalaya, in contrast were the lowest performers according to the rankings.
The releasing of the report witnessed special remarks by Debolina Kundu, director (additional charge) at NIUA, which read: "Strengthening municipal finances would not only guarantee effective service delivery but also independent city government functioning.".
She explained that with the right financial instruments, city governments can chart a successful course going forward. Kundu also said that these governments need to be granted financial powers and authority to become self-sustainable and run independently.
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