Kohima ‘more’ liveable but below national average

Our Correspondent
Kohima, March 4 (EMN): After being tagged as the second most ‘unliveable city’ in the country, Kohima climbed 18 spots in the rankings under Ease of Living Index (EoLI) 2020 announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Thursday.

Ease of Living Index evaluates the well-being of citizens and the impact of various initiatives for urban development in 111 cities across various parameters consisting of four pillars-- quality of life, economic ability, sustainability and citizen perception survey.

Kohima has been ranked 92 out of 111 cities in the Ease of Living Index 2020, showing an improvement over 110^th position it secured in 2018. However, the city’s overall score of 49.87 points is still lower than the national average score of 53.51.

In the “less than million populated cities category”, which consists of 62 cities, Kohima stood at 49^th position. Shimla emerged as the top performer in this category with a score of 60.90, followed by Bhubaneshwar (59.85), Silvassa (58.43), Kakinada (56.84), and Salem (56.40).

Bengaluru has been declared as most liveable city in the Million+ population category, followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Surat.

Addressing journalists after the Ease of Living Index 2020 rankings were announced, Chief Executive Officer of Kohima Smart City Development Limited (KSCDL), Kovi Meyase said Kohima’s performance was “a little better” this time and is ‘slowly but surely showing improvement’. 

‘We were not able to improve beyond,’ Meyase said. He, however, expressed hope that they would do better in the next round.

While thanking the citizens of Kohima for their prompt participation in ‘citizen perception survey’, he said there was a change of people’s mindset towards cleanliness and sanitation in the city.  

Joint CEO of KSCDL, Avelu Ruho said that the state capital performed fine in the citizen perception survey.

‘This pillar holds 30% weightage from the overall score. Over 5000 citizens of Kohima including street vendors, daily wage earners participated in the survey,’ she added.

As for the other 70% (divided among three other pillars), KSCDL “suffered a lot” as it has to do with data alone, which is a challenge for a state like Nagaland, Ruho pointed out.

Kohima performed well in ‘citizen perception’ scoring 76.30, ranking 54^th among 111 cities across India. The survey allowed residents to evaluate the level and quality of development in their respective cities.

Under quality of life assessment, Kohima scored 50.06 against the national average score of 51.38. The quality of life uncovers an understanding of different aspects contributing to a decent urban life by examining provisions for necessities such as affordable housing, access to clean water, basic education, healthcare facilities, safety and security, and recreation avenue. The goal was to assess a holistic impression of the quality of life in India's urban cities. It holds a weightage of 35% in the final index score.

The city scored 46.88 in sustainability index, less than the national average of 53.63. Under sustainability, availability of green spaces, promotion of green buildings, level of energy consumption, quality of natural resources such as air and water, and the city’s ability to withstand natural disasters are evaluated. It holds a weightage of 20% in the final index score.

In economic ability, Kohima ranked lowest among 62 cities with a score 0.55 against the national average of 13.17.

Ruho said that it is Centre and KSCDL that rated the city for economic ability, as Nagaland state does not pay tax unlike other states.

The economic ability assessment was conducted to find out the economic well-being of citizens by evaluating the level of economic development and inequalities citizens face in the city they live in. This pillar holds a weightage of 15%.

Kohima’s performance under Municipal Performance Index (MPI), which examines local government practice in municipalities across areas of services, finance, policy, technology and governance, was also poor. It was ranked 58 among 60 urban local bodies in the country in the category of ‘less than one million population’. New Delhi Municipal Council topped the category, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar.

Indore has emerged as the highest ranked municipality in ‘more than one million category’, followed by Surat and Bhopal.

Kohima was ranked 58 in services, 54 in finances, 36 in technology, 60 in planning and 46 in governance.  

Meyase, who is also the administrator of Kohima Municipal Council, said that there are sectors where the municipality ‘does not have anything much to say and don’t have any control’, be it water and road facility, power system, or hospitality.

‘All these sectors are beyond our control unlike other municipalities where the urban local bodies are empowered with all the functions and related activities,’ he said.

However, he expressed hope that other stakeholders also would show improvement in their respective sectors now that they are aware of the assessment conducted by the Centre.