While the newly formed boards at the Itanagar Municipal Corporation and Pasighat Municipal Council have started their innings with hype, the marked feature of which are promises to bring ‘changes’, a report card [Ease of Living Index (EoLI) 2020 and Municipal Performance Index (MPI) 2020] released by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Thursday should serve as a reminder to them that the sooner these changes arrive, the better it is for the state in terms of prestige. In both the above parameters, Pasighat has joined the state capital in becoming the back benchers and it’s a bitter irony that both aspires to be Smart Cities. Even if soul searching is warranted to arrive at the contributing reasons for this poor result and a high degree of lamentation will be the companion, getting overwhelmed by it will mean throwing the towel. Both administrations and citizens alike must think deeply and act concertedly for a reversal. It’s doable, but will be a bit time consuming. The question is, how early the temperament that would herald this radical change arrives and more importantly, how long it sustains.

Both EoLI and MPI indices have a population-based criteria based on which the cities that participated in the assessment exercise conducted in 2020 have been classified and Itanagar and Pasighat having population less than 10 lakh have been grouped under the ‘Below 1 Million’ category. The EoLI is a reflection of availability of certain fundamentals such as ease of living, quality of life, economic-ability of a city, sustainability and citizens’ perception. The MPI on the other hand is also based on the above heads and as a supplement to the EoLI, it’s a measure of efficiencies of local governments (Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council or by whatever name known) across several key areas like services, finance, policy, technology and governance. A higher rank in this case denotes that a city has been able to present its citizens a superior quality of governance that is free from complexities and the much-clamoured aspects of transparency and accountability have been ensured. Coming to the EoLI (Below 1 Million population category), out of 62 cities, the state capital has ranked 53^rd with an overall score of 48.96 and the century-old township of Pasighat is two steps down at 55^th with an overall score of 48.78. In the MPI which has 60 cities, Itanagar’s rank is 56^th with an overall score of 26.28 and Pasighat has justly accompanied the state capital with the 57^th spot where the overall score is 25.95. The performance is poor and it’s now the duty of the authorities of the two cities to find out what went wrong.

The above indices are reliable tools based on which more result-oriented policymaking can be taken. Sincere efforts for improving the future rankings will be awaited.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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