Lucknow: Of total eight cities of Uttar Pradesh participated in Ease of Living (EoL) survey 2020, citizens of seven cities have rated the living standards as ‘Satisfactory’. However, only two cities are satisfied with their local municipal corporations performance.
As per the rankings issued by Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Thursday, Of total 49 cities having population of above 10 lakhs in EoL survey, Lucknow was ranked 26th, followed by Varanasi 27th, Kanpur 28th, Ghaziabad 30th, Prayagraj 32nd, Agra 35th, Meerut 36th and Bareillly 47th.
For EoL 2021 survey, citizens were asked questions under four parameters- quality of life, economic abilities, citizens perception and sustainability of services.
The parameter ”Quality of Life’ evaluates overall safety and security, affordable healthcare, recreationalfacilities, livelihood opportunities and access to financial services. The category economic abilities asked locals about their purchasing power including electronic items, automobiles, electrics and housing units among others.
In ‘Citizens Perception’, several questions relating to affordable and quality education, quality of drinking water supply, adequacy of public transport, affordable electricity, quality of air and overall cleanliness were answered by the citizens. While, a poll regarding ‘sustainability of services’ given by local government bodies was also asked to answer by the union ministry.
While, UP cities performed much better in EoL survey with eight out of seven cities coming under ‘Satisfactory’ category the same cannot be said about the urban local bodies (ULB) of the respective cities.
As per the report, only two ULB, Varanasi and Bareilly managed to come under the ‘Satisfactory’ category. While, citizens of rest of the six cities were not happy with their civic body functioning and put them under ‘Need Improvement’ category.
The municipal body survey was based on finances, planning, services, governance and technology. Locals were asked several questions related on these five parameters and rank their respective ULBs out of total 100 marks under each category.
The EoL survey was conducted online last year in February with 111 cities taking part in the survey. The cities were divided in two categories, more than 10 lakhs (49 cities) and less than 10 lakhs (62). Results of the survey were to be announced in September, however, the announcement was delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The union ministry had previously conducted the EoL survey in 2018. In that survey, same number of cities participated, but there were no different categories.
In 2018, Varanasi was ranked 33rd, Raebareli 49th, Agra 55th, Lucknow 73rd, Kanpur 75th and Moradabad 89th. The ministry studied quality of life in each city based on several parametres, including institutional (governance), social (identity, education, health, security), economic ( economy, employment) and physical (waste water and solid waste management, pollution, housing/ inclusiveness, mixed land use, power and water supply, transport, public open spaces) factors. Each parametre carried a weightage totaling 100 marks — institutional (25), social (25), physical (45) and economic (5). Based on this, the cities are given an overall rank.
