Srinagar among poorest cities in India

Srinagar, Aug 25: Figuring at 100th position, Srinagar is among the poorest cities in India in the ‘Ease of Living Index’, the report of which was made public by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
The ‘Ease of Living Index’, released by the Government of India’s ministry, is based on assessment of the quality of life in cities on four broad parameters: institutional (governance), social (health, education, security), economic and infrastructure.
As many as 111 cities have been considered by the Government of India, in which the study took into consideration 78 infrastructure-related indicators in 15 categories.
Pune figured at Rank 1 while Rampur in Uttar Pradesh figured at the bottom of the “livability index”.
As per the study, Srinagar poorly fared in all the four parameters, figuring at the bottom pool of the list.
The city could only score an overall average of 28.19 points on the four parameters as compared to the national average of 37.23.
In ‘governance’ parameter, Srinagar put up a poor show with just 14.16 points against the national average of 36.59.
Similarly, in ‘Social’, ‘economic’ and ‘infrastructure’ parameters, Srinagar scored 32.44, 33.8 and 20.82 points against the national averages of 43.68, 43.44, and 29.78, respectively.
Srinagar city this year has also slipped by 43 points in the list of sanitised or clean cities this year, though counterpart Jammu made an improvement by 39 ranks.
As per the “Swacch Survekshan 2018”, a survey by Centre government’s Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs, Srinagar has scored1761.15 points, thereby attaining a rank of 284th position.
Last year, the Srinagar was ranked 241, barely months after the city was declared open defecation free by the central government.
Sanitation in Jammu and Kashmir has been already among the worst in India, with around 59 percent of households without a toilet.
An official in the Housing and Urban Development Department said that the city’s development works took a back seat due to the “unconducive” conditions during last few years.
“All the developmental works reported poor progress here due to the turmoil. But still, sanitation has gradually shown some improvement. All districts of the valley including Srinagar could not achieve their targets due to delay in releasing of funds,” the official said.