By: Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir has been adjudged as the second best governed Union Territory, a report released by a think- tank has revealed.
In its report, the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), a not-for-profit research think tank, has revealed that Jammu & Kashmir has shown improvement in the composite ranking for governance index-2021 and bagged second position.
In 2020, J&K had finished at sixth position among UTs.
Based on government data, the Public Affairs Index (PAI) is a data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the sub-national level, and ranks the states and union territories on the basis of their performance in the sub-national governance for the overarching sustainable development pillars of equity, growth and sustainability.
The states are classified into large states, small states (using population as the criteria) and Union Territories. The PAI 2021 has also included two new assessments of sub-national governance- scheme analysis and the COVID-19 response.
According to the report, the J&K UT has performed well in terms of immunisation achievement, but it still lags behind in education and basic Infrastructure. “The Union Territory attains the second position overall. Public Affairs Index-2021 recommends that the UT take active measures to improve health and education outcomes and keep a check on pollution to better the performance in the index. Focus on schemes like National Urban Livelihood Mission, National Health Mission and Swach Bharat Abhiyan would be beneficial for the UT,” read the report.
The Public Affairs Index-2021 consists of three pillars (equity, growth and sustainability), five themes (voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of Corruption), 14 n sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 43 indicators.
