Government Launches Index To Measure Living Standards Of Major Cities
Ministry of Urban Development on 23 June launched the ‘City Liveability Index’ for measuring the quality of life in 116 major cities with population of above one million.
The index is a common minimum reference framework to know the position and quality of life and the intrusions required to improve the standard; were launched by the Minister of Urban Development, Venkaiah Naidu at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation.
Stating that cities are now moving on a through a well planned process of infrastructure development under new urban missions launched during the last three years, Naidu said “Time has now come to measure life quality in cities and rank them accordingly”.
The cities will be assessed on a comprehensive set of 79 parameters to capture the extent and quality of infrastructure including availability of roads, education and health care, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance, redress, pollution, availability of open and green spaces, cultural and entertainment opportunities. After selecting the agency for undertaking this assessment next month, data collection will be completed in the next about six months.
The Ministry of Urban Development has disbursed Rs 500 crore as incentive to 16 States that performed well in implementing urban reforms during the FY 2017. Progress in reforms like e-governance, account audit, tax revision policies and extent of tax revenue collection, energy, and credit rating was taken into account.
