Jobs and Water are Main Issues For Karnataka: Survey

As of February end, the performance of the Congress led Karnataka government was rated as 7.09 on a scale of 10 by eligible voters, according to a voters survey conducted by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and DAKSH, a civil society organization. The survey was conducted for a period of three months during December 2017 and February 2018. The state is set to go for elections in April-May this year to elect 225 legislative members.

The survey sample consisted of 13244 eligible voters, 67 percent were men and 33 percent were women and 74 percent of respondents were between 18 and 45 years of age. 53 percent respondents were from rural locations and 47 percent from urban.

Improving water supply and quality in the state is by far the most important issue in both rural and urban areas (out of the 25 issues the survey focused upon) for the voters. It had a significant score of 8.06 out of a scale of 10 in rural areas and 8.02 out of 10 in urban areas.

Other most important issues in urban areas were better electricity supply (7.97/10), better schools (7.94/10), better roads (7.81/10) and environment protection (7.8/10). In rural areas, the next important issues were better schools (8.03/10), better roads (7.99/10), better electricity supply (7.96/10) and more hospitals and public health centres (7.92/10).

On the government’s performance, the highest performance score was given to ‘better schools’ in both urban (7.8/10) and rural areas (7.58/10). The worst performances were on the issues of Public Facilities (6.79/10), Corruption Eradication (6.77/10) and Job Trainings (6.40/10) in urban areas. Whereas in rural areas, the worst performance score was given to Better Employment Opportunities (6.7/10), Corruption Eradication (6.67/10) and Job Trainings (6.6/10).

On the assessment of the important state sponsored schemes being implemented by the state govt., 79 percent said that they were happy with the Anna Bhagya Scheme (rice distribution to BPL), followed by 64 percent with the Anila/Gas Bhagya Scheme (provides free LPG connections to BPL families), 63 percent with the Cycle Bhagya Scheme (distribution of bicycles for students from rural and hilly regions), 58 percent with the Krishi Bhagya scheme (financial assistance to farmers in the rain-fed areas) and only 16 percent respondents were happy with the Shaadi Bhagya Scheme (the scheme provides financial assistance for the marriage of financially backward minority women).

Anti-terrorism had the least significance in the urban areas (7.2/10), in rural areas, job trainings (7.51/10) had the least significance, according to the survey.

86 percent respondents said that the (contesting) candidate was the important reason for them to vote in an election, although, 67 percent respondents considered the candidate’s party to be a voting factor, 42 percent said they would vote based on the Chief Minister candidate. Candidate’s religion and caste were important for 37 percent and 36 percent voters respectively.

While the voter turnout in 2013 elections stood at 70.23 percent, the survey results found that majority of the eligible electorate intended to vote in the coming elections.