port Blair, Dec 27: The Union territory (UT) of Puducherry topped the list of seven UTs in the country in the good governance index (GGI) released by the department of administrative reforms and public grievances. Sadly among seven UTs, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, stood fifth in rank.
Puducherry scored 4.69 points in the GGI followed by Chandigarh (4.68), Delhi (4.39), Daman & Diu (4.33) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (4.12). Lakshadweep (2.97) fared poorly and was placed at the bottom of the table. Dadra & Nagar Haveli scored 3.12 points.
The data for this survey was collected before Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into Union territories. Hence, J&K was included in the list of northeast and hill states. The subsequent edition of GGI will include J&K and Ladakh in the respective categories.
The department evolved a uniform tool, GGI, to assess the status of governance and impact of various initiatives taken up by state governments and UTs. The index was based on the performance of the states and UTs in 10 broad sectors.
Puducherry finished first in four areas – human resource development, public health, judicial and public security and environment. It came second in agriculture and allied sectors, third in public infrastructure and utilities and fourth in commerce and industries and economic governance and fifth in social welfare and development.
The index aims to furnish quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in the states and UTs and enable them to formulate and execute plans to improve governance. It also aims to encourage states and UTs to shift to result-oriented approaches and administrative practices.
The ranking in agriculture and allied sectors was based on the growth rate of food grain production, horticulture produce, milk production, meat production and crop insurance while ranking in commerce and industries was mainly based on ease of doing business. The human resource development ranking focused on quality of education, gender parity and retention rate at elementary level (grade one to eight).
Ranking in the public health sector was done mainly based on infant mortality and maternal mortality rates, while public infrastructure and utility ranking was done according importance to potable water and growth in per capita power consumption.
Economic governance ranking was based on growth in per capita gross state domestic product and state’s own tax revenue receipts to total revenue receipts. The ranking in social welfare and development was based on rural employment guarantee and unemployment rate as indicators.
Judicial and public security ranking was based on conviction rate and availability of police personnel, while environment ranking was based on the change in forest cover and availability of action plan for climate change.