Steel city Jamshedpur ranks No 2 in
'quality of life' index
Chandigarh retains top slot in AC Nielsen ORG-Marg study
on basic services
ARINDAM SINHA
DATELINE
JAMSHEDPUR: With 57%
of its population 'extremely satisfied', steel city
Jamshedpur stands next only to Chandigarh in terms of
the overall 'quality of life index' (QOL) according to a
study by AC Nielsen ORG-Marg.
The study, conducted on the basis of street-corner
interviews for cities comparable with Jamshedpur, like
Bangalore, Chandigarh, Pune and Bhubaneswar, used urban
environment, water supply, power supply, public
services, education, cohesion & migration, safety,
housing, employment, economy, and politics and
government as parameters for arriving at the QOL
perception.
The study, the second since the initial one in 2003,
used a structured questionnaire for both male and female
respondents aged 21-50, who had been staying in the
respective cities for at least two years.
While Chandigarh topped the list with an overall QOL
score of 63.4, Jamshedpur, ranked third in 2003, moved
to the second spot logging an index score of 48.4, with
Bangalore at 37.6, Bhubaneswar at 37.1 and Pune at 36.9.
The study also showed that while the QOL index fell both
for Chandigarh (from 71.6 to 63.4) and Bangalore (from
41.3 to 37.6) between the two surveys of 2003 and
September 2006, for Jamshedpur it rose from 40.6 to
48.4. The index for Pune also rose marginally (from 35.2
to 36.9).
However, Chandigarh continues to have the maximum
proportion of 'most satisfied' people, with 88% of the
respondents saying they were 'extremely satisfied' with
their city, followed by Jamshedpur (57%), Bhubaneswar
(38%), Pune (37%), and Bangalore (27%), respectively.
Chandigarh also showed the least percentage (8%) of
'very dissatisfied' citizens, an area of concern for
cities like Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur and Pune where 48%,
39% and 38% responded so.
The survey also showed that in terms of basic services,
like that of water, power and telecom, Bhubaneswar was
doing very well in providing all the basic services
except for a low 40% of its population agreeing that
they were 'satisfied' with its water tariff, an area
where Jamshedpur showed a high, with 65% saying they
were 'very satisfied' with the water tariff.
The survey was conducted at the instance of the
Jamshedpur Utilities & Services Company (Jusco), A TATA Enterprise. Jusco, the country's first utilities
services company, considers Chandigarh's QOL index as
the Indian benchmark, which it has been pursuing
vigorously.
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