Pune: Pune ranks 4th while Mumbai topped the list among 21 big cities in a survey conducted to assess the capability of city administration to deliver better quality of life over the medium and long term. While the maximum city moved eight places from last year & Pune moved to fourth position from last year's eighth position , Thiruvananthapuram retained the second position. Delhi ranked slipped to sixth position from five in 2014 while Bhubaneswar, which ranked number one in the smart cities contest recently, came 18th in the list.

The Annual Survey of India's City-Systems (ASICS) survey conducted by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, covered 18 states. According to the report, all the 21 cities had very low score when compared to cities such as London and New York, indicating the need to push major reforms in municipal governance as pressure increases on major urban centres.

In fact, one of the few planned cities, Chandigarh, has the dubious distinction of being at the bottom for the second time in a row.

The survey has revealed how all Indian cities continue to score in the range of two to 4.2 on a scale of zero to 10, while London and New York have scored 9.4 and 9.7 respectively. Cities that have made major improvements include Hyderabad, which has moved up from 17 to nine within a span of one year and Kanpur, which ranked at 14 in 2014, moving up six spots last year. Similarly, Chennai made remarkable improvement, while Raipur and Surat slipped significantly in the list.

The report says that the city-system covers laws, policies and process in respect of spatial planning, financial management, skills and capability of the municipal staff, technology and quality and powers of political leaders besides accountability for performance and service levels. "The aim of the report is to focus on flawed legislations, policies, processes and practices that lie at the root of poor quality of life in cities," Janaagraha functionaries said while releasing the report.

Source: Times of India, Pune March 15, 2016