State capital Ranchi and coal city Dhanbad are among the 114 cities across the country in the fray for improving their ranking in the second edition of the Ease of Living Index survey by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs.

The index includes 100 smart cities and 14 cities who are beneficiaries of the Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT, a centrally sponsored scheme) and who have a population in excess of 10 lakh. Ranchi has been included for being among the 100 “smart cities” while Dhanbad has been selected for being among the 14 AMRUT beneficiary cities with population above 10 lakh.

State urban development authority (Suda) sources, however, said both the urban local bodies are lagging behind in survey and are desperately looking at better citizen feedback to up their rankings.

“Ranchi is currently at 54 spot achieving 53.67 per cent

in the citizen perception survey while Dhanbad is slightly better placed at 26 spot achieving 107.43 per cent in the survey,” said a senior Suda source. “Both the urban local bodies have to desperately try to create awareness and involve more institutions and citizens in giving their feedback as the citizen perception survey will continue till February 29.”

This is the first year when the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs is conducting separate surveys for ease of living and municipal performance index. In 2018, both municipal performance and ease of living indices were combined with Ranchi finishing 68th with a score of 32.45 and Dhanbad at 97th position with a score of 8.51.

“We are creating awareness in association with Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited (RSCCL) among the people,” said Ranchi Municipal Corporation city manager Nandlal Baraik.

RSCCL spokesperson Amit Kumar said: “Residents can participate in the survey till February 29 by visiting http://eol2019.org/CitizenFeedback and answering a series of questions related to the city’s infrastructure, law and order, pollution level and transport facilities.”

Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) city manager Prem Prakash said the city was aiming at the top 10.

“We are trying our best to be amongst the top 10 this time,” he said.