Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya are at the bottom of the good governance index (GGI) among states from the Northeast and the hilly regions.

The index, released recently by the Centre’s department of administrative reforms and public grievances, is a uniform tool across states to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the state government and Union Territories.

The objectives of the index are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in the states and Union Territories, enable states and Union Territories to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result-oriented approaches and administration.

The good governance index sectors include agriculture and allied sectors, economic governance, commerce and industries, social welfare and development, human resource development, judicial and public security, public infrastructure and utilities and citizen-centric governance.

Among the states of the Northeast and the hilly regions, Himachal Pradesh topped in the composite ranking with a score of 5.22 followed by Uttarakhand with a score of 4.87, while Tripura came third with a score of 4.5.

Assam came behind Sikkim and ahead of Jammu and Kashmir with a score of 4.07. The bottom three states are Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh with a score of 3.81, 3.55 and 3.03 respectively.

In agriculture and allied sectors, Mizoram topped the list with a score of 0.66 while Manipur and Nagaland were at the bottom with a score of 0.29.

Uttarakhand topped the states in the area of commerce and industries while Meghalaya and Manipur lagged at the bottom. Himachal Pradesh topped in the human resource development sector while Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh were down below.

In public health, Manipur was adjudged the best performing state while Assam was placed at the bottom.

As far as public infrastructure and utilities are concerned, here again Himachal Pradesh came up as the best-performing state while Arunachal Pradesh was the least-performing state.

In economic governance, Uttarakhand was on top while Nagaland was placed at the bottom. Meghalaya came up with the best score in the social welfare and development sector, while Nagaland lagged the most. In the judicial and public-security ranking, Himachal Pradesh topped the list while Assam was the worst-performing state.

Himachal Pradesh bagged the top-most position in the environment sector while Arunachal Pradesh was at the bottom.