BENGALURU: The incumbent chiefs of local administration may be overwhelmed with the latest ranking Bengalureans have given the city, but the turnaround from the 58th position in 2018 and getting enough citizens to vote weren't easy tasks for their predecessors.
IAS officers Hephsiba Rani Korlapati and BH Anil Kumar - former MD of Bengaluru Smart City Limited and ex-BBMP commissioner, respectively - are credited for the city's performance. Voting (citizens' feedback) for the rankings announced on Thursday was actually done in February 2020.
Like every year, the Centre had set a target - the number of citizens that should vote/participate - for each city, failing to meet which it wouldn't be ranked. "We need to thank citizens for voting in large numbers. The target set for Bengaluru was 90,000, the second highest in India, and this process had to be completed in the 29 days of February 2020. Then BBMP commissioner marshalled resources to ensure we were ranked and we're happy today that the city is the most liveable," Hephsiba said.