Survey puts Bengaluru last in urban governance rankings

A survey has ranked Bengaluru last among 23 major cities in the country in the quality of governance rankings.

As per the Annual Survey of India's City System (ASICS)-2017 conducted by Bengaluru-based NGO Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Pune emerged as top city followed by Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Surat.

The survey was conducted in 23 cities spread across 20 states and factors in answers to 89 questions.

The cities were ranked based on the quality of laws, policies, institutions and institutional processes which help to administrate them, says the report.

While Bengaluru got a score of 3 out of 10, Pune got 5.1 and Kolkata bagged 4.6.

Questions were asked mainly under four categories: urban planning & design, urban capacities and resources, transparency, accountability and participation, empowerment and legitimate political representation.

Bengaluru got the lowest score as the city lacks sanitation plan, comprehensive mobility plan and also does not have resilience strategy.

The survey also states that Bengaluru failed to undertake centrally sponsored AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) reforms on the double entry accounting system, credit rating, publishing e-newsletters and availability of demand collection book.

"The civic data is not made available in open data format in Bengaluru," said Anil Nair, deputy head, advocacy and reforms at Janaargraha.

Though Pune scored 5.1 out of 10, these marks are very poor if one took major global cities as a benchmark in civil administration.

For instance, London and New York scored 8.8 out of 10, indicating that these cities have the best local administrative system to address the civic issues, Nair said.

The ASICS-2017 survey indicates that urban local bodies have to take up urgent measures in several areas like modern framework of spatial planning of cities and design standards for public utilities such as roads, footpaths, finances, human resources management, giving more power to mayors and city councils, improve citizen participation and transparency in finances and operations of cities.