Solan district at 10th spot on Good Governance Index

Solan district has been placed at the 10th slot, one position better than last year, among 12 districts in the Good Governance Index (GGI) rankings released recently by the state government.

Only neighbouring Sirmaur and Shimla districts are placed lower than Solan while even the remote district of Chamba occupies the ninth slot. The smaller district of Kullu bagged the eight spot. Solan was much lower at 0.502 points vis-à-vis Kangra, which topped with 0.645 points in the GGI.

The district fared dismally with the state's average score of 0.557 as it could muster merely 0.502 points based on 99 indicators spread across eight themes.

The criteria like essential infrastructure, support to human development, social protection, women and children index, crime, law and order, environment, transparency and accountability and economic performance are taken into account while evaluating the overall position of a district.

Solan district fares at the lowest level among 12 districts in crime and law and order like last year. The district comprises two police districts of Solan and Baddi. Crime in Baddi is particularly high vis-à-vis Solan. The index has taken into account the criteria like detection work in narcotics, traffic challans per 100 police personnel, detection of heroin and crime against women. The Solan police have arrested several inter-state drug peddlers and attached their property worth crores of rupees, no such work is visible in Baddi.

Solan is at the 11th position in the women and children index, indicating the lack of efforts made to ameliorate their lot. It occupies the last spot in the transparency and accountability index and the ninth position in the key environment index. The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh cluster faces a slew of environmental issues with its air and water securing adverse ratings nationally since years.

Solan, however, occupies the second position in the essential infrastructure index as it has a good network of roads and comes forth in support to human development. The district has bagged third slot in social protection which is commendable vis-à-vis neighbouring Shimla which occupies the last slot. When it comes to economic performance Solan is placed at eight position.

Solan Deputy Commissioner Manmohan Sharma says, “The district has improved its ranking by one position this year. The district continues to lag behind in the crime, law and order index due to a large number of criminal cases being registered in the Baddi area and environmental issues pertaining to the industrial cluster of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh.”

He says, “Employees have been directed to work on each aspect and ensure improvement in the areas where the district lags behind so that it can achieve a better rank next year.”