Rural Tamil Nadu wants farm loans, says ADR study

With Tamil Nadu headed to the polls next month, a ground survey of voters has found that availability of agricultural loans was the main demand from voters from rural areas while urban electorate wanted better job opportunities.

The survey by the Association for Democratic Reforms of over 16,000 respondents in every constituency, asked voters to express their priorities and rate the government's performance on 31 issues. 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."

The report says, "Rural voters still form the bulk of people in the state. When asked for their top three priorities, they said agriculture loans, employment and electricity for agriculture were the top priorities." While 24.75 per cent of voters prioritised agriculture loan availability, 22.88 per cent wanted better employment opportunities for 20.72 per cent people, electricity for agriculture was the major demand.

Significantly, on the rural performance rating of government, the worst rated performance was on agriculture loan availability (27) and better employment opportunities (26). The government also fared poorly on providing electricity for agriculture according to voters (20).

Voters considered "relatively good" the performance in sectors such as hospitals, water for agriculture and quarrying and mining. The ADR report noted that the "last may be an environmental hazard but people may have supported it due to the employment generated".

In urban Tamil Nadu, voters accorded employment the highest priority, followed by noise pollution and drinking water. Better employment opportunities was chosen by 23.59 per cent voters, followed by noise pollution (21.82 per cent), drinking water (20.69 per cent).

Traffic Congestion was ranked 30th in terms of performance, health care was ranked 18th and roads was ranked 24th, in terms of government performance. The report concludes, "To win they ( governments) seem to resort to freebies for voters rather than deliver good governance."