BHOPAL: For a majority of about 15,000 voters surveyed by the Association for Democratic Reforms, ‘better employment opportunities’ was a major issue during the recently held assembly elections.

“The survey was conducted among 500 to 550 voters in every parliamentary constituency, thus around 15000 voters were surveyed in Madhya Pradesh,” said ADR state co-ordinator Rolly Shivhare.

The survey was conducted between August and November 2018.

The findings suggest that ‘better employment opportunities’ was the major issue for 70% of the respondents in urban areas, while in rural areas, 59% of the rural respondents’ stated that the issue was of primary concern for them. Among the rural respondents, the performance of the state government was best regarding ‘agriculture loan availability’ and ‘electricity for agriculture’ with an average score of 4.51 and 4.28 respectively on a scale of 1to 5, the findings stated.

The worst performing sectors were ‘water/river/lake pollution’, ‘drinking water’, ‘encroachment of public land/lakes’, and ‘reservation for jobs and education’ with the average score of 1.61, 1.58, 1.06 and 1.01 respectively. When it came to urban respondents, ‘the performance of the state government was best on ‘better hospitals/primary health care centres’, ‘better law and order/policing’, ‘better roads’ and ‘better public transport’ with average scores of 3.98, 3.85, 3.74 and 3.67 respectively.

In the same survey, urban respondents said that the ‘worst performing sectors were ‘subsidized food distribution/ration’, ‘lower food prices for consumers’, ‘better garbage clearance’ and ‘reservation for jobs and education’ with average scores of 1.98, 1.94, 1.73 and 1.06 respectively’.