Pune ranked No. 1 city in country in 'ease of living' rankings

PUNE: Among 111 cities in terms of "liveability" in the Ease of Living Index 2018 released by the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) on Monday, Pune was ranked first.

Besides Pune, three other cities in Maharashtra

 - Navi Mumbai (2nd), Greater Mumbai (3rd) and Thane (6th) - finished in the first 10. Pimpri Chinchwad's ranking (69) has come as a surprise to many. Rampur in UP was at the bottom, followed by Kohima in Nagaland and Patna 

. Bengaluru, which has seen congestion become a serious drawback, ranks 58 and Hyderabad 27. 

Interestingly, PM Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi ranked 33. West Bengal did not participate in the exercise.

Former bureaucrat and urban planner T C Benjamin said "quality of life" in a city is to be assessed on four factors - health, safety, convenience and beauty. "Ease of living, on the other hand, has more to do with convenience than with the other three factors. Convenience implies easy accessibility to various facilities and, to that extent, Pune may qualify as one of the best. I feel happy at that but, at the same time, the rankings leave me worried about the plight of our other cities which apparently are worse than Pune."