For Tamil Nadu voters traffic congestion, water and pollution high on priority list

Better employment opportunities, lower food prices and facility for cyclists and pedestrians were also among the top priorities for voters
A survey was conducted in Tamil Nadu to find out what voters really want from the government and how they rate the performance on issues that are important to them
Credit: Tracy Hunter/Flickr
A survey was conducted in Tamil Nadu to find out what voters really want from the government and how they rate the performance on issues that are important to them Credit: Tracy Hunter/Flickr
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An election survey conducted across Tamil Nadu constituencies has thrown up interesting results. Ending in February this year and covering over 16,000 respondents, this was the largest survey done so far in the state.

The purpose of the survey was to find out what voters really want from the government and how they rate the performance on issues that are important to them. It was done by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-political organisation, which aims to help improve elections.

What voters said

When asked to rate the top three priorities, most voters opted for traffic congestion, water, and air and noise pollution. A total of 48.08 per cent of voters said that traffic congestion was one of the top three priorities for them; 34.84 per cent said that for water and air pollution and 33.73 per cent gave priority to noise pollution. About 83 per cent of the voters rated one of these three issues as their top priority.

Better employment opportunities, lower food prices and facility for cyclists and pedestrians were also among the top priorities for voters.

However, issues such as reservation of jobs, education, terrorism, strong military and corruption were not top priorities among the respondents.

When it came to governmental performance, the worst rated was traffic congestion and pollution. There were a total of 25 issues for which the respondents set the priorities and then rated the government’s performance. Surprisingly, among the top three voter priorities, traffic congestion was ranked 24th and noise pollution ranked 21st out of 25. Clearly, high-priority issues for voters performed badly on the government rating scale.

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