TN tops GGI among states, Maha 2nd

The southern State of Tamil Nadu has bagged the top position in the composite ranking for good governance index (GGI), followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, according to data provided by the Personnel Ministry.

Chhattisgarh has got the fourth position, followed by Andhra Pradesh (fifth), Gujarat (sixth), Haryana (seventh) and Kerala at the eight rank, it said.

Madhya Pradesh is at the ninth rank, West Bengal at the tenth position, followed by Telangana (11th), Rajasthan (12th), Punjab (13th), Orissa (14th), Bihar (15th), Goa (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Jharkhand at eighteen position in the big states category.  The States and Union Territories have been divided into three groups -- big States, North-East and hill States, and Union Territories -- for the rankings based on certain indicators separately.  In the North-East and hill category, Himachal Pradesh has topped the ranking followed by Uttarakhand, Tripura, Mizoram, Sikkim, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir (now divided into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh), Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Among the Union Territories, Pondicherry has got the first position, followed by Chandigarh, Delhi, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep.

Minister for Fisheries, Personnel and Administrative Reforms D Jayakumar on Thursday said that Tamil Nadu has received hundreds of awards in all the departments and now the best state for governance is another milestone.

“Among the states in India, Tamil Nadu has received maximum number of awards. The award is not just for this year and the same governance will continue even after AIADMK winning the 2021 state Assembly elections,” said Jayakumar, while addressing reporters at the Secretariat.

In a report released by Centre for Good Governance, attached to Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, on Thursday, Tamil Nadu was ranked first in the composite ranking. Performance of states in various sectors, including agriculture and allied sector, commerce and industries, human resource development public health, public infrastructure and utilities economic governance, social welfare and development, judiciary and public security were taken into account and the states were given marks ranging from 0 to1 based on their performance.

With an overall score of 5.62 Tamil Nadu came on top. The report has come as a huge boost for the ruling AIADMK government which has been criticised by the opposition parties on governance.

Speaking about the report, Jayakumar said, “People are living peacefully in the state. They move to the places they desire and basic infrastructural facilities such as roads, drinking water, streetlights, electricity and drainage canals are laid properly due to which Tamil Nadu has become the best state in the country.”

He also said that law and order and basic infrastructure are two eyes of a government and if both the eyes are performing well a state can excel in all other departments. Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Jayakumar said, “Tamil Nadu has attained real independence as a woman can walk with all her jewels even in the midnight.”

However, DMK president MK Stalin, referring to the Childline report on Tamil Nadu registering the second most number of sexual abuse cases, in a tweet, said, “Even though administrators fail to protect women and girl children police should focus on protecting them.”