Pune Best Governed In India, Bengaluru Worst: Survey

Indian cities are making a slow progress to provide better governance to its citizens, shows the fifth edition of the Annual Survey of India's City-System (ASICS), 2017, conducted by Bengaluru-based non-profit body Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD). Our cities are, however, quite far behind when compared to the global cities known for offering their citizens the best.

Pune’s civic body topped this year list of 23 cities while India’s information capital Bengaluru stood at the bottom. The cities were rated on four key parameters of governance, including

*Urban planning & design,

*Urban capacities and resources,

*Empowered and legitimate political representation,

*And, transparency, accountability and participation.

The cities, spread across 20 states, scored between 3.0 and 5.1 on a scale of 10 while benchmark cities London and New York score 8.8. Johannesburg, a city from a developing country, scored 7.6. "Scores of benchmark cities indicate how far our City-Systems need to be strengthened before we can expect our cities to deliver good quality of life," says the report that cites financial crisis to be the root cause of most of the problems Indians cities face today.

The scores show Indian cities are "grossly under-prepared" in delivering a high quality of life that is sustainable in the long term, says the report. "The recurring floods, garbage crises, fire accidents, building collapses, air pollution and dengue outbreaks are only symptoms of this deeper governance crisis in our cities," the report adds.

The top performers
*Pune
*Kolkata
*Thiruvananthapuram 
*Bhubaneswar 
*Surat 

At the bottom
*Bengaluru 
*Chandigarh 
*Dehradun 
*Patna 
*Chennai 

What ails Indian cities?

Indian cities are in a precarious situation, JCCD CEO Srikanth Viswanathan. “There is a marginal improvement (in their performance), but the rate is slow compared to the rate at which problems in the cities are growing," he adds.

Now, let us look what ails Indian cities in eight points.

*While only 13 per cent cities have enacted town planning laws after liberalisation, planned cities seem not to be doing any better. Two of India’s planned cities ─ Bengaluru (23) and Chandigarh (22) ─ found a place in the bottom of the list. Weak finances of the civic body are cited as the reason for Bengaluru’s poor performance.

* “Both availability of money and its management are showstoppers in India’s cities,” says the report. Sample this. On an average, cities generate only 39 per cent of the fund they spend every year. Bihar capital Patna infamously generates of 17 per cent of funds it spends every year. In fact, 54 per cent of the cities do not generate enough money to pay their staff.

*Apart from the fact the staff employed in Indian cities’ urban local bodies does not possess the required skills and competencies, 35 per cent of posts lie vacant on an average. In Guwahati, which is positioned at the 14 position in the list, the vacancy average stands at 60 per cent.

*While there are 148 urban planners per 400,000 people in the United Kingdom, there is only person doing the job for the same number of people in Indian cities. In the United States, 48 urban planners do the job. Even in South Africa, there are four urban planners to do the thinking.

*While “proper design standards for roads can transform not only mobility but also other utilities”, India’s cities do not have design standards for roads. Bad roads are adversely affecting public utilities such as footpaths, bus stops, water and sewerage networks, storm water drains, power cables, optical fibre networks and traffic surveillance, the report points out.

*While city administrations are busy devising policies to curb illegal constructions and mushrooming of slums, there are no severe punishments for plan violations in Indian cities. While the three benchmark cities have a score on 10/10 on this parameter, all 23 Indian cities have a score of 0.

7. “Toothless” heads of the city are the main reason why cities are not able to improve their performance, says the report. Part of the problem lies in citizens not having a direct say in the election of mayors. In mega cities such as Bengaluru and Delhi, for instance, mayor are indirectly elected and have a short tenure of one year. In comparison, smaller cities such as Bhopal, Kanpur and Lucknow directly choose their mayors for a five-year period.
8. There is “total absence of systematic citizen participation and transparency” in Indian cities. “India’s cities have virtually no platforms where citizens can participate in civic matters in their neighbourhoods. This impacts not only accountability of municipalities but also the quality of democracy itself. Low levels of transparency in finances and operations of municipalities worsens this problem,” says the report.

The silver lining

*Mumbai, Delhi Hyderabad and Pune generate 50 per cent of the amount they spend.

*National capital Delhi improved its ranking from nine to six this year, with a score of 4.4.

*Jharkhand capital Ranchi has broken into the top 10 with a score of 4.1. Chhattisgarh capital Raipur is following close at the 11th spot with a score of 4.

With inputs for Housing News