Atal Nagar of Chhattisgarh and Amravati of Andhra Pradesh did not fulfil the parameters of 'Ease of Living Index' as they are green-field cities, the Central Government has informed.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri in a workshop held in New Delhi on Monday urged all States and cities to share their inputs on ‘City GDP Framework’ so as to devise a robust GDP framework for cities.
Notably Andhra Pradesh had topped the charts among States in terms of “Ease of Living Index” rankings launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). It was followed by Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
The three States were awarded the three best performing States under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) at the National Dissemination Workshop on Ease of Living Index, 2018, in New Delhi on Monday.
While presenting the awards to the States, the Union Minister of State (I/C)) for Housing and Urban Affairs, Puri said that the Ease of Living Index is a transformative initiative of the Ministry to help the cities assess their liveability vis-à-vis national and global benchmarks.
He exuded confidence that the Ease of Living Index will encourage all cities to move towards an ‘outcome-based’ approach to urban planning and management and promote healthy competition among cities.
The MoHUA released the first ever ‘Ease of Living Index’ covering 111 Indian cities on 13 August, 2018, which serves as a litmus test to help assess the progress made in cities through various initiatives. All cities were evaluated out of 100. The 'physical' pillar (infrastructure) was given the highest weightage of 45, while institutional (governance) and social were weighted 25 each. Economy was weighted 5.
Puri pointed out that Ease of Living framework comprised four pillars namely Institutional, Social, Economic and Physical which are further broken down into 78 indicators across 15 categories (governance, identity and culture, education, health, safety and security, economy, affordable housing, land use planning, public open spaces, transportation and mobility, assured water supply, waste-water management, solid waste management, power, and quality of environment). “Another highlight of the Ease of Living assessment standards is its close linkage with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Of the 17 SDG goals, 8 goals are directly linked to India’s ease of living assessment framework with SDG 11” he said.
