Liveability sliding

Liveability sliding

Urgently called for reforms also include municipal governance. Only cities can drive growth.

Delhi’s and Mumbai’s slide down the liveability index to the 118th and 119th spot among 140 world cities reveals India’s unpardonable failure to create at least two showpiece metro cities befitting the two decades of fast-paced economic growth the country was earlier witness to. Delhi and Mumbai have added infrastructure like roads, public transport and housing but the idea of a liveable city encompasses a lot more than just ceaseless (sometimes pointless) construction activity. Take Mumbai where heavy rainfall on Wednesday has drowned and shut down the city. Widely billed as Asia’s richest municipal body, Mumbai’s BMC is heavily politicised and incapable of meeting public pressure to reform.

Delhi’s drop by six places in the liveability index has been attributed to drop in its environment, culture and safety scores. Even while offering a global perspective, this fall starkly captures Delhi’s local lived reality. Petty crimes are mushrooming again and Delhi police have squarely failed to tackle the biker gangs committing roadside robberies. A shocking case this week typifies the antiquated methods still in vogue. A senior citizen was murdered by his domestic help with the much-vaunted police verification of domestic workers restricted to the thana level, failing to catch the crimes committed by the help at two nearby police stations.

Policing of large metropolitan cities cannot afford to be so myopic. India needs to approach urban local government differently. State governments have centralised too much authority and devolve too little power and funds to municipal corporations. Consequently, civic bodies and town planners lack the capacity to handle rapid urbanisation. The spurt of slums and landfills, encroachment on public land, non-existent drainage, groundwater exploitation, and clogged roads can all be traced to weak municipal corporations.

Mumbai and Delhi are the two Indian cities measured by World Bank for its influential ease of doing business index. Foreign investors tend to be chary about cities showing regression in a key area like liveability. When government finally gets going on the next generation of economic reforms, it must also untangle municipal governance which holds back Indian cities from realising their potential. State governments must cooperate. For example, Maharashtra politicians do little to reform BMC. Photographs of hapless residents wading through neck-deep waters ruin Mumbai’s global image as a gateway to India.