In the composite ranking of the first ever District Good Governance Index (DGGI), Jammu district has emerged at the top, followed by districts of Doda, Samba, Pulwama and Srinagar in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. The DGGI, virtually released by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is a framework document comprising performance under 10 governance sectors having 58 indicators with 116 data points.
The criteria has been adopted after following a rigorous and robust process of data collection, screening and validation by each of the districts. The governance sectors, the performance of which was weighed under this index, includes Agriculture and Allied (11 indicators), Commerce and Industry (five), Human Resource Development (nine), Public Health (nine), Public Infrastructure and Utilities (six), Social Welfare and Development (six), Financial Inclusion (three), Judiciary and Public Safety (four), Environment (two) and Citizen Centric Governance (three).
Under individual categories, Kishtwar district in Jammu region has been rated top in agriculture sector, Jammu in two sectors of C&I and Citizen Centric Governance, Pulwama in HRD, Reasi in Public Health, Srinagar in Public Infrastructure, Ramban in Social Welfare, Ganderbal in Financial Inclusion, Doda in Judicial and Public Safety and Shopian in Environment. In the overall ranking, Ganderbal district in central Kashmir stands at 6th place, Anantnag at 7th, Baramulla at 8th place, followed by Kathua (9th), and Kupwara at 10th place.
The last 10 districts in the index include Kishtwar at the 11th spot followed by districts of Budgam, Udhampur, Reasi, Bandipora, Ramban, Kulgam, Shopian, Poonch and Rajouri which were at the bottom of the index in the composite ranking. The booklet states DGGI as a tool to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the districts and UT administration.
It says that the index would provide a framework to assess the performance of the districts in specific sectors and provide useful information to the districts enabling them to formulate and implement suitable strategies to improve ease-of-living and service delivery. The ranking of the districts, has been said, would bring about healthy competition amongst them from which the citizens would be immensely benefited.
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) has been guiding and providing financial support for the exercise with technical support extended by CGG, Hyderabad. The J&K Institute of Management for Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPARD) with active collaboration of Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) were the pivotal agencies in developing this index for the UT, the official said.
With PTI Inputs
