Good Governance Index: Srinagar ranks first in Public Infrastructure and Utilities sector

File Photo (ANI)

Srinagar: Srinagar district bagged the first rank in Public Infrastructure and Utilities sector under Good Governance Index (GGI) released by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday (January 22) in the presence of Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and MOS PMO Dr Jitendra Singh. 

Srinagar also ranked in the top 5 districts in Composite GGI in Kashmir Division with a score of 5.313 points.

Pertinently, Amit Shah launched District Good Governance Index for the 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir which was prepared by the Department of Administration Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). The GGI 2021 framework covered 10 sectors and 58 indicators.

Under Public Infrastructure and Utilities, the Srinagar District has scored 0.944 points and ranked first in District Good Governance Index (DGGI). 

The aim of the Good Governance Index is to create a tool that can be used uniformly across the states for assessing the impact of various interventions that are taken up by Central and State Governments. 

Good Governance is the key component of the economic transformation and with the present government’s focus on ‘minimum government and maximum governance’ the Index assumes more significance. GGI is a comprehensive and implementable framework to assess the State of Governance across the States and UTs which enables ranking of States/Districts.

Meanwhile, regarding the release of Good Governance Index by the Union Home Minister, Manoj Sinha said a “good initiative has been started in J&K and other districts will learn from the best practices in various districts so that good governance can be established across the entire J&K and the people can be given better facilities and services”.

The event was organised jointly by DARPG and Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPARD) in association with the Center for Good Governance.

Reacting to Amit Shah's remarks made during the event that J&K statehood would be restored after the situation becomes normal, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, "After quite literally terrorising people of J&K into silence to create a false normalcy narrative, GOIs admission that situation still isn’t normal is self-contradictory. Also proves that silence shouldn’t be misconstrued as normalcy." 

After quite literally terrorising people of J&K into silence to create a false normalcy narrative, GOIs admission that situation still isn’t normal is self contradictory. Also proves that silence shouldn’t be misconstrued as normalcy. https://t.co/S8xAmv7iN3 — Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) January 22, 2022

National conference spokesman Imarn Nabi Dar said it's a "wrong comparison" if we compare J&K with other UTs as JK was two years back a state. 

Imran said, “You have demoted a state to UT and when you compare now the development of J&K, which was a state earlier and was developed accordingly, so there will be a difference between other UTs' development and this one. So it’s comparing apples with oranges, it’s not really comparisons, we have been demoted.”