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The Indian Ministry of Urban Development on Friday, June 23, 2017, launched the ‘City Liveability Index’ for measuring the quality of life in 116 major cities including smart cities, capital cities and cities with a population of above one million each.
The Index, a Common Minimum Reference Framework enables the cities realise their standing on qualities such as quality of life and the interventions needed, said Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation.
“Time has now come to measure life quality in cities and rank them accordingly,” said Mr Venkaiah Naidu.
The first of its kind, the City Liveability Index will assess cities on 79 paratmeters to measure the extent and quality of infrastructure including availability of roads, education and health care, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance redressal, pollution, availability of open and green spaces, cultural and entertainment opportunities etc.
After selecting the agency for undertaking this assessment next month, data collection will be completed in the next about six months, informed the minister.
The Ministry of Urban Development also disbursed Rs.500 crore as incentive to 16 States that performed well in implementing urban reforms during 2016-17 such as e-governance, Audit of accounts, Tax revision policies and extent of tax revenue collection, Energy and Water Audit, Establishing State Level Financial Intermediaries for resource mobilization, Credit Rating etc., were also taken into account.
Venkaiah Naidu’s home state Andhra Pradesh topped the list scoring 96.06% marks, followed by Odisha (95.38%), Jharkhand (91.98%), Chattisgarh (91.37%), Madhya Pradesh (90.20%), Telangana (86.92%), Rajasthan (84.62%), Punjab (77.02%), Kerala (75.73%), Goa (75.38*), Mizoram (75.00%), Gujarat (73.80%), Chandigarh (72.73%), Uttar Pradesh (70.67%) and Maharashtra (70.52).
