by Minhaj Masoodi
SRINAGAR: Home Minister Amit Shah today virtually released the District Good Governance Index (DGGI) Report in presence of MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, thus making Jammu and Kashmir the first UT to have such an index.
The Governance Index has been prepared by the Department of Administrative and Public Grievances (DAPG) in collaboration with the government of Jammu and Kashmir.
On the occasion, HM Shah termed the launch as an “important day not just for Jammu and Kashmir, but for entire India.” He said that it would help in improving the delivery mechanism and also make the districts result-oriented. He said that the index would gradually be expanded to other states which will spark a “good governance competition” across all districts in the country.
Jammu district topped the index list with a DGGI score of 5.740, followed by Doda district with a score of 5.367, Samba (5.365), Pulwama at 4th position with a score of 5.360. Srinagar scored 5.313 and was placed at 5th rank in the index.
Poonch and Rajouri districts scored the least scores, 4.340 and 4.291 in the governance index and were positioned at 19th and 20th rank respectively.
Ganderbal scored 5.037 and was placed at 6th rank followed by Anantnag (5.022), Baramulla (5.017), Kathua (4.835), Kupwara (4.751) Kishtwar (4.695), Budgam (4.664), Udhampur (4.622), Reasi (4.615), Bandipora (4.573) while Ramban, Kulgam and Shopian scored 4.418, 4.366, 4,366 respectively.
In the Kashmir division, Pulwama topped the charts followed by Srinagar and Ganderbal while Kulgam and Shopian were at the bottom of the list. In the Jammu division, on the other hand, the Jammu district got the first rank followed by Doda and Samba. Poonch and Rajouri districts were placed last on the list.
The Governance Index Report encompasses 10 governance sectors, 58 indicators and 116 data items. In Agriculture and Allied Sector, Kishtwar topped the list with a score of 0.772 followed by Srinagar (0.724) and Doda (0.657). Kupwara and Shopian had the least score of 0.315 and 0.310 respectively.
In Commerce and Industry, the list was topped by Jammu (0.642) followed by Ramban (0.618) and Kupwara (0.600). Srinagar had a score of 0.493 in the commerce sector while Kishtwar scored the least (0.160).
Pulwama (0.830), Ganderbal (0.790) and Samba (0.772) got the first three ranks in Human Resource Development. Srinagar was placed 9th in the sector with a score of 0.573 while Jammu was ranked fourth with a score of 0.729. Meanwhile, Ramban was placed at the bottom with a score of 0.339
In the Public Health Sector, Reasi topped the list with a score of 0.751. Jammu came second place with a score of 0.721, Srinagar third with 0.702 while Ganderbal was placed last with a DGGI score of 0.379.
In Public Infrastructure and Utilities, Srinagar was top of the table with a DGGI score of 0.944, followed by Jammu (0.860), Samba (0.851). Ramban was placed last with a score of 0.330.
Ramban (0.801), Kathua (0.697), Anantnag (0.664) were the top three districts in the Social Welfare and Development Sector. Srinagar was ranked 18th with a score of 0.346 while Jammu was placed last with a DGGI score of 0.227
The top three ranks in the Financial Inclusion Sector were bagged by Ganderbal (0.740), Kulgam (0.670) and Anantnag (0.658) respectively. Jammu (0.402) and Srinagar (0.369) were ranked 12th and 15th respectively. Budgam (0.096) was ranked last.
With regard to the Judicial and Public Safety Sector, Doda topped the chart with an Index score of 0.872, followed by Udhampur (0.832) and Rajouri (0.817). Srinagar (0.608) was ranked 15th in this sector while Shopian with a DGGI score of 0.062 was ranked last.
In the Environment sector, Shopian (0.600) was placed at the top, followed by Doda (0.400) and Budgam (0.390) respectively. Jammu (0.158) and Srinagar (0.065) were placed at 13th and 16th respectively while Kishtwar with a score of 0.000 was placed last.
Meanwhile, in the Citizen and Governance Sector, Jammu (0.726), Kishtwar (0.600) and Srinagar (0.490) bagged the top three slots while Kupwara district (0.156) was placed last in the list.
The DGGI report said that it would act as a tool to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the districts and UT administration and also provide a framework to assess the performance of districts in specific sectors.
The report said that it used a set of approaches for developing the index which assisted in the identification of the broad spectrum. The report said that the selection of measurable aspects under each sector is broadly driven by data availability. However, the report said that there were limitations in existing data in terms of providing a “comprehensive picture”.
“In some cases, the data does not cover all Districts and is limited to sample Districts, population, etc. Sometimes data is not available on a yearly basis and some indicators do not reflect time-series data. The significance of ready data availability through departments of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and the office of DCs is premised on the fact that the DGGI should be implementable without having to depend on primary data collection through primary surveys.”
It said that the secondary data compiled from sources mentioned in the report is authentic, reliable and accounted for, leading to the easy roll-out of the index.
