With burning lakes, potholes, Bengaluru fares worst in urban-governance survey
A comprehensive study assessing the urban governance in 23 cities of India has brought a real bad news for Bengaluru. The Karnataka capital has been ranked as the worst city in the survey carried out by city-based NGO Janaagraha. The 2017 Annual Survey of India's City System (ASICS) based its result on four key components: the quality of laws, policies, institutions, and institutional processes.
Pune aced the survey scoring 5.1; Bengaluru languishes at bottom
The survey gave equal weightage to all four factors: urban planning and design; urban capacities and resources; transparency, accountability and participation; and empowered and legitimate political representation. The score scale was kept at 0-10 and New York and London were set as the benchmarks. While both cities scored 8.8, Pune scored 5.1 and came first in India; Bengaluru scored a dismal 3.
Toothless civic bodies, no ward offices, empty chairs
The study revealed that all the cities suffer from same set of problems. Half of these cities, including Bengaluru, do not generate enough revenue to pay the municipal staff. An average of 35% positions in municipalities remain empty. The average tenure of a civic body commissioner lasts not more than ten months. The absence of ward offices also contributes to bad urban governance.
Multiple civic agencies, mayor's short tenure behind Bengaluru's performance
The NGO said the multiple civic agencies in Bengaluru, like BMTC, BWSSB, BDA, BMRDA, BMRCL are not centrally supervised by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and it's a problem. Contributing to the issue is the mayor's tenure. "The BBMP Mayor is indirectly elected for one year only. The absence of an empowered political leadership renders them less effective," said Anil Nair of Janaagraha.
How did the other cities fare
According to the survey, the best city to live in is Pune, followed by Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram and Bhubaneswar. Mumbai comes at 9th, with Hyderabad above and Ranchi below. The worst are Chandigarh, Dehradun, Patna and Chennai. While Thiruvananthapuram has slipped, Surat has shown massive improvement.
