In composite ranking of first ever District Good Governance Index (DGGI) released by Home Minister, Amit Shah, the Jammu district has managed to top the list followed by districts of Doda, Samba, Pulwama and Srinagar in the UT. The DGGI is a framework document comprising of performance under ten governance sectors having 58 indicators with 116 data points. The criteria have 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 sector (11 indicators), Commerce and Industry (5), Human Resource Development (9), Public Health (9), Public Infrastructure and Utilities (6), Social Welfare and Development (6), Financial Inclusion (3), Judiciary and Public Safety (4), Environment (2) and Citizen-Centric Governance (3).
Under individual categories Kishtwar has been rated top in Agriculture sector, Jammu in two sectors of Commerce and Induatry 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 stands at 6th place, Anantnag at 7th, followed by Baramulla district at 8th place followed by Kathua (9th), and Kupwara at 10th place. The last 10 district in the index includes Kishtwar ranked 11th followed by districts of Budgam, Udhampur, Reasi, Bandipora, Ramban, Kulgam, Shopian, Poonch and Rajouri being 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. Further 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 would bring about healthy competition amongst districts from which the citizens would be immensely benefitted. Pertinent to mention here that the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India 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.
