Naidu government neglected voter priorities: ADR

The Telugu Desam Party government (TDP) of in Andhra Pradesh has neglected voter priorities and performed "poorly and underwhelmingly" on everything, including employment, drinking water and farm infrastructure, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watchdog.

The survey, released on Monday, found better employment opportunities, drinking water, and decent hospitals and primary healthcare centres were the top three priorities for voters. The performance of the N. Chandrababu Naidu government was rated below average in all three areas.

In rural Andhra Pradesh, availability of water for agriculture, subsidy for seeds and fertilisers and electricity for farms were top priorities and the government performed below average on these as well, the report said.

The state government scored 2.13 on a scale of 5 on the availability of water for agriculture, 1.99 on farm subsidy and 2.19 on power for the farm sector, the report added. "In addition, the government has performed poorly in providing employment opportunities (2.08) and drinking water (2.12) in rural areas," it said.

The ADR survey, conducted between October 2018 and December 2018, also revealed that for urban voters better employment, drinking water and pollution were top priorities.

"The government's performance on urban voters' priorities of better employment opportunities (2.13), drinking water (1.91), and water and air pollution (2.19) was below average. In addition, the government has performed poorly on noise pollution (1.96) and traffic congestion (1.98) in urban areas," the report said.

"The Andhra Pradesh Survey Report 2018 points out that voter priorities in the state have been neglected by the government and it has performed poorly on almost all top 10 voter priorities," it said.