Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy has been released.

Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS)

Why in news?

The fifth edition of the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy has been released.

About the survey:

The objective of the survey was to measure the preparedness of cities to deliver high quality infrastructure and services in the long term by evaluating “city systems”.

• The survey spans 23 Indian cities and factors in answers to 89 questions. The cities were scored based on the quality of laws, policies, institutions and institutional processes that together help govern them.
• ASICS groups questions into four categories: urban planning & design; urban capacities & resources; transparency, accountability & participation; and empowered & legitimate political representation.

Performance of various cities:

• Pune, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram top the country in terms of urban governance.
• Delhi and Mumbai figure in the sixth and ninth positions respectively.
• Among the medium cities (with a population of up to one million), Ranchi has broken into the top 10 with a score of 4.1. Bengaluru and Chandigarh (perceived as a planned city) figured at the bottom of the list.
• On a scale of 10, the 23 cities – many of which are part of the government’s flagship smart cities mission – scored between 3 and 5.1 on four key components of governance.

Concerns and challenges:

• A majority of its cities “grossly underprepared” to deliver a high quality of life in the long term. And many surveyed cities are far behind cities such as London, New York and Johannesburg, which topped global benchmarks with 8.8, 8.8 and 7.6 points respectively.
• The cities assessed in the study are found to be generating only 39% of the funds they spend on an average, with Patna raising just 17% on its own. Only Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune generate over 50% of the amount they spend from their own revenue.
• The study found that in several cities, their own revenues did not even cover staff salaries. “Lack of adequate revenue sources of their own severely constrains the ability of our cities to invest in infrastructure and service delivery.
• The pace of reforms in India has been painfully slow. Recurring floods, garbage crises, air pollution, fire accidents, building collapses and dengue outbreaks are symptoms of this deeper governance crisis in our cities.
• The survey also found urban capacities across cities suffering from rampant staff vacancies, inadequate domain experience of senior municipal officers, and powerless mayors and councils. Commissioners were found to have only have 2.7 years of experience in urban management on an average. Average staff vacancy stood at 35%, with Guwahati bottoming out at 60%.
• The mayor and councils in our cities are toothless. They don’t have full decision-making authority over critical functions such as planning, housing, water, environment, fire and emergency services.
• No city in India has effective policies to deter plan violations, a deficiency that leads to the mushrooming of slums and unauthorised colonies. While all its 23 cities scored zero on this parameter, London, New York and Johannesburg notched a perfect 10 out of 10.
• Moreover, most of the country’s town and country planning acts date back to the previous century. It has one planner per four lakh citizens (as opposed to 48 in the United States and 148 in the United Kingdom).

Way ahead:

Lack of legislative imagination and political will has resulted in state governments not fixing city governance. The need now is to fix city governance on a war footing. There will be no change unless the state government empowers municipalities.

Sources: the hindu.