What Chennai voter wants: above all, the odd-even scheme! -Governance Now

What Chennai voter wants: above all, the odd-even scheme!

Their top priorities are reducing traffic congestion and pollution, ADR survey finds

GN Bureau | May 4, 2016

#odd even #democracy #ADR #Tamil Nadu #Chennai #governance #politics #Elections

When people of Chennai go out to vote for the next state government on May 16, what will be the issues top most in their minds? Curiously, they will be thinking less about jobs, ‘good governance’, and the usual stuff, and more about traffic congestion and pollution – precisely the matters for which the Delhi government has found a debatable solution in the odd-even scheme.

READ: All eyes on Amma

In the run-up to the assembly elections, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) conducted a survey of over 16,000 respondents in every constituency of Tamil Nadu ending in February 2016. This was the largest survey done so far in the state, says the ADR in a release. The purpose of the survey is to find out what voters really want from the government and how they rate the performance on the issues that are important to them.

When asked for their top three priorities, the Chennai voters said that traffic congestion, water and air pollution and noise pollution were the top priorities.

The table below gives the percentage of people who said that the issue was one of the top three priorities for them. So 48.08% of voters said that traffic congestion was one of the top three priorities for them, 34.84% of voters said that for water and air pollution, and 33.73% for noise pollution.

Clearly they show that issues of traffic and pollution are the top priorities for them. About 83% of voters gave one of these three as their top priority.

Create your own infographics

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

It is also interesting to note what issues were not priorities for them. For instance reservation for jobs, education, terrorism, strong military, corruption, were not top priorities.

Performance rating of government

Among the worst rated performance was on traffic congestion and pollution. These unfortunately are among the top three priorities for the people. There were a total of 25 issues for which they gave priorities and then rated government’s performance. Thus for the top three priorities, traffic congestion was ranked 24th and noise pollution was ranked 21st out of 25, better employment opportunities 12th, and drinking water 23rd . So high priority issues for voters had very bad performance.

Conclusion

If voters expect good performance from the government, they are likely to be disappointed. In democracy as played out today, one party has to merely defeat the other party, not necessarily deliver good governance. To win they seem to resort to freebies for voters rather than deliver good governance.

Comments

Other News

Lessons in climate adaption from world’s largest inhabited river island

Majuli Island, perched between the Brahmaputra River to the south and east, the Subansiri River to the west, and a branch of the Brahmaputra to the north, has been severely affected by recurrent flooding and intense riverbank erosion. Despite its global importance in acquiring UNESCO tentative status for

Careless whispers and the impossible trinity

Time can never mend, the careless whispers of … As the RBI marches ahead, for the upcoming monetary policy meeting this June, whispers from the corridors echo around several policy options to defend the rupee – by deploying forex reserves, raising in

Bullet Train Project: Third mountain tunnel breakthrough achieved

A major engineering milestone has been achieved in the Mumbai–Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project with the successful breakthrough of the third mountain tunnel (MT-07) at Ambesari village in Dahanu Taluka of Palghar district, Maharashtra. With this achievement, three mountain

Supreme Court gets five new judges

Five new judges were appointed to the Supreme Court of India on Monday. "Vide Notifications of even number dated 01.06.2026, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the Hon’ble President of India is pleased to appoint (i) Shri

Astonishing breadth and depth of ancient Indian knowledge systems

The Greatest Books of Ancient India: Incredible Ideas about Science, Music, Maths, Art and More By Dr. Pradeep Chakravarthy and Dr. R. Thiagarajan Hachette India, 208 pages, Rs 399

Strong El Nino threat over India`s monsoon, food & water security

India is heading into the southwest monsoon season this year under the shadow of a rapidly strengthening El Nino, with meteorologists warning that the climate phenomenon could significantly disrupt rainfall patterns, intensify heat stress and place additional pressure on the country’s agriculture-d