Bhubaneswar ranks 4th in Quality of Governance List: Study

KalingaTV News Network

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha capital city has added another feather to its cap as it has been ranked 4^th position in the best quality of governance in cities, a study done by the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS)-2017.

Bhubaneswar which was placed at 10th position in 2016, has jumped to 4^th position in 2017 by beating Delhi and Mumbai. The study spans across 23-city in 20 states of the country based on 89 questions.

As per the fifth ASICS conducted by Bengaluru-based advocacy group Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Bhubaneswar scored 4.6 out of total 10 points. Delhi was ranked sixth this year with a score of 4.4 and Mumbai secured 4.1 out of 10.

While Pune with 5.1 score topped the list while Kolkata (4.6) and Thiruvananthapuram (4.6) secured second and third position respectively.

Surprisingly, Bengaluru, one of India’s most cosmopolitan and forward-looking cities, was ranked last.

The study ranked cities on the basis of four key components of governance – urban planning and design; urban capacities and resources; empowered and legitimate political representation; and transparency, accountability and participation. Scores were accorded in the 0-10 range.

The key findings of the survey about Bhubaneswar are:  (1) Policy in place for incentivising green buildings. Only 11/23 cities have provided such incentives, (2) Internal audit report made available online. Only 6/23 cities have made it available online, (3) Municipal staffing data made available online. Only 3/23 cities have made such information available online, (4) Action taken report on state finance commission recommendations made available online. Only 10/23 cities have made it available online.

The news has doubled the joy of the denizens of Bhubaneswar as two days ago, the city became the only Indian City to be placed in world’s top 20 Smart Cities.

As per the Global Smart City Performance Index-2017 which was released on Monday, Bhubaneswar has been ranked 13 so far as ‘Safety’ is concerned and has been ranked 20 in terms of ‘Mobility’, ‘Health’ and ‘Productivity’.

Notably, Bhubaneswar had topped the list of Indian Smart Cities in 2016.