Making cities liveable

A city growing vertically and horizontally is not necessarily the most liveable place if it lacks the basic amenities and delivery of services for its residents. The 'Ease of Living Index (EoLI)-2020' and the 'Municipal Performance Index (MPI)-2020' released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs have revealed the bitter truth about Guwahati city. It will soon become unliveable if timely and urgent steps are not taken to improve the situation. The capital city is ranked 46th among 49 cities in the category of million plus population. Bengaluru has topped the rankings in the category which makes it to be recognised as the most liveable city. Guwahati figures at the bottom of MPI-2020 for 51 with a score of only 18.40 among 51 million plus cities having municipal corporations. Indore is ranked first with total score of 66.08 among these cities. The Ministry has described the EoLI to be an assessment tool that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development. It provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities across India based on quality of life, economicability of a city, and its sustainability and resilience. The assessment also incorporates the residents' view on the services provided by city administration through a 'Citizen Perception Survey'. The MPI was launched as an accompaniment to the EoLI. It seeks to examine local government practice in municipalities across areas of services, finance, policy, technology, and governance. It seeks to simplify and evaluate the complexities in local governance practice and promote the ethos of transparency and accountability, states the official release issued by the Press Information Bureau. The 'Citizen Perception Survey' holds 30 per cent weightage in the EoLI while 13 different categories including education, health, housing and shelter, water sanitation and hygiene, solid waste management, recreation, economic development, economic opportunities, green spaces, buildings, energy consumption and city resilience covered under the pillars of 'Quality of Life', 'Economic Ability', Sustainability account for rest 70 per cent weightage. Both EoLI and MPI rankings of this gateway to Northeast is reflective of misplaced priorities of the Guwahati Development Department, Guwahati Municipal Corporation and Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority.

Foot overbridges equipped with escalators constructed reducing carriage of main thoroughfares of the city have become priorities for the authorities while snail traffic and poor public transport system has been retarding mobility of city residents.The authorities have missed deadlines to shift the dumping site of city municipal solid wastes at Boragaon There is no visible efforts to put in place an integrated solid waste management system that would have led to discontinuation of dumping municipal waste near the Deepor Beel, the lone wetland in the state to be designated as a Ramsar site.Planting of trees in multi-storied apartments and housing complex is not enforced. The GMC does not have system of collecting segregated garbage and mixed wastes collected door-to-door is dumped on roadside to be lifted by trucks carrying solid waste to dumping site at Boragaon. A section ofirresponsible city residents also uses roadsides to dump household wastes. Plastic wastes dumped on the roads and streets find way to city's drains clogging those and adding to the problem of waterlogging in many localities. Majority of the city areas do not have piped water supply and forced to buy untreated water from private suppliers while water supply projects are hanging fire. Ironically, the perennial river Brahmaputra flows by the city. The lowest ranking of the city in respect of Planning, Governance, Services and Finance pillars of GMC paint the real picture of the mess Guwahati is in. Making city residents equal stakeholders in the planning of the city's development process will go a long way. Awareness level of the residents about their rights and responsibilities for planed and sustainable growth of the city is critical to achieve the desired changes. The capital city occupying a key place in India's engagement with vibrant ASEAN economy and central to the country's 'Act East Policy' is yet to catch the imagination of the city residents due to which majority of them have remained a mute spectator. Rhetoric of smart city solutions and building hype over ill-conceived projects cannot turn the city with poor indices a liveable city. Entire city planning needs an overhaul. The election to the GMC has not been held since 2018 after the term of the elected body expired and the corporation affairs being run bureaucrats instead of an elected body has diminished the space of the residents in the city's growth. Holding of GMC polls at the earliest is critical to making the residents equal participants in the planning and growth of the city. It is hoped that the alarm bells sounded by poor EoLI and MPI indices will be heard by all stakeholders.