Drinking water and electricity supply, key issues on which the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls were fought, featured among top issues that the residents of Delhi were most concerned about according to a survey that was conducted ahead of the Lok Sabha polls last year. On all the major ten issues, as per the survey, performance of the Delhi government has been rated below par.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) — Daksh Survey — that was conducted during December 2013 to February 2014 had asked voters to rate 30 most important issues in their particular region. It was found that there was a wide gap between voters’ expectations and government deliveries in the Capital. ADR has written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urging him to take cognizance of the findings and “prepare a blueprint at the earliest so that the most pressing governance issues as reported by the Delhi voters may be catered and resolved sooner rather than later.” Drinking water followed by better hospitals, electricity supply, law and order, roads, public transport, schools, better employment opportunities, security of women, and subsidised food distribution were rated as the top 10 issues that the residents of Delhi are most concerned about.
“The overall score in Delhi, on a scale of 10, according to importance of issues was 8.88. This meant that 30 issues presented to voters were rated as between medium and high priority. In other words, expectation from the government across Delhi State was high,” the letter to Mr. Kejriwal noted. “The voters gave an overall government’s performance rating of 5.86 on a scale of 10, to these 30 issues, which meant below average performance.”
“Voter priorities have changed and expectations have gone up. There is a need to re-set some of the priorities to reflect what the voters really need and to improve governance,” said the report.
The survey was conducted across 525 Lok Sabha constituencies and over 2,50,000 voters participated in this exercise spread among various demographics, the reported added.