Thiruvananthapuram tops in urban governance: Janaagraha survey -Governance Now

Thiruvananthapuram tops in urban governance: Janaagraha survey

Bhubaneswar moved up due to reforms such as instituting municipal cadres, tiered spatial planning including ward level plans and instituting a single window clearance process

GN Bureau | March 1, 2017

#smart cities #Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems #urban governance #Janaagraha centre for citizenship and democracy

Thiruvananthapuram retained its number one position in 2016 for urban governance. Pune came in at second, up two ranks over 2015 and Kolkata, third, same as 2015, said the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) prepared by Janaagraha centre for citizenship and democracy.

The biggest gainer in 2016 was Bhubaneswar, which jumped eight ranks over 2015 to the 10th spot. This was on the back of a slew of reforms such as instituting municipal cadres, tiered spatial planning including ward level plans and instituting a single window clearance process for development projects that are in conformity with plans.

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Bengaluru dropped four places to rank 16 due to better performance by some of the smaller cities.

Jaipur improved its scores on the back of passage of the Rajasthan Urban Land (Certification of Titles) Bill that enabled better urban land utilisation while Chennai slipped due to Tamil Nadu’s legislation to elect Mayors through indirect elections.

The report said that the Delhi government conceived Mohalla Sabhas with the vision to decentralize governance and decision-making at the level of the community or Mohalla.

Read: Giving people’s money back to them to spend on their own

The idea of deepening urban democracy to a level lower than the ward found place first in the Community Participation Law, passing of which by States was a necessary condition for the release of certain funds under the JNNURM.

Read: Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) 2016

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