Bangalore may be the ‘IT capital’ of the country but is behind smaller cities when it comes to a range of policies and issues. In an annual survey of 21 major cities, Bangalore was placed 18th just after Hyderabad.
These were findings of the second edition of the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) conducted by the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. It is a benchmarking exercise and covers 21 cities — Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Surat and Thiruvananthapuram — across 18 States. It included 83 questions covering 115 parameters that define the functioning and policy framework, and evaluated the cities on four aspects: urban planning and design, urban capacities and resources, empowered and legitimate political representation and transparency, and accountability and participation.
Key findingsADVERTISEMENT
The survey revealed that Indian cities score in a range of 2.5 to 4 on a scale of 10 while London scored 9.6 and New York 9.3. Kolkata scored 4, the highest, which the survey attributed to its “sound electoral process”, having recorded high voter turnouts. Thiruvananthapuram was a close second and was found to be the only city with a local body ombudsman.
Bangalore had an average score of 2.8 against the national average of 3.3.
Chandigarh scored the lowest overall at 2.5 due to its “poor legal framework”. The survey cited the city as lacking a contemporary planning act, public disclosure law and community participation law.
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All cities scored zero on compliance with spatial development (Master) plans. New Delhi was judged the best planned city.
No city, except Hyderabad, was found to have constituted area sabhas.
A release from Janaagraha said the scores imply that Indian cities are “grossly under-prepared to deliver a high quality of life that is sustainable in the long term.”