Shillong Featured at Bottom in Centre's "Municipal Performance Index"

SHILLONG: According to the 'Municipal Performance Index' report released by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Shillong figured on the last spot in this category which featured 60 municipal corporations.

Meanwhile, the New Delhi Municipal Council was ranked number one in the Centre's "Municipal Performance Index" in the 'less than a million population' category.

Further, the list was followed by the civic bodies of Tirupati, Gandhinagar, Karnal, Salem, Tiruppur, Bilaspur, Udaipur, Jhansi and Tirunelveli which were among the 60 civic bodies which were in contention in the 'below one million' category.

The Municipal Performance Index (MPI) was launched as an accompaniment to the Ease of Living Index. It seeks to examine local government practice in municipalities across areas of services, finance, policy, technology and governance. It seeks to simplify and evaluate the complexities in local governance practice and promote the ethos of transparency and accountability.

The salient features of MPI are given below.

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.

The framework covers 20 varied sectors vis. Education, Health, Water & 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.

In the million-plus category featuring 51 civic bodies, Surat was ranked second, Bhopal came third, followed by Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Greater Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, and Vadodara.

It is to be mentioned here, Guwahati figured at the bottom of the 'Municipal Performance Index' in the 'more than million population' category.

In the extended report, the rankings under Ease of Living Index 2020 were announced for cities with a population of more than a million, and cities with less than a million people. 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted in 2020. The analysis categorises them into Million+ populated cities (those with a population of more than a million) and Less than Million populated cites (those with a population of less than a million) along with all the cities under the Smart Cities Program.

Bengaluru emerged as the top performer in the Million+ category, followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore, and Greater Mumbai. In the Less than Million category, Shimla was ranked the highest in ease of living, followed by Bhubaneshwar, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere, and Tiruchirappalli.

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