Sonowal govt in Assam scores high on fighting graft: Survey

GUWAHATI: According to a survey conducted by the BJP-led state government to gauge its performance in its first year in power, more than half of the people who participated in the poll feel that the ‘overall development’ by the new dispensation is just average and poor. Only 15% have rated this government’s performance in the ‘overall development’ category as excellent and the remaining 34% have marked it as good. The worst rating received by the government is in the ‘improvement in roads and communication’, in which domain 34% of people think that the government’s performance has been poor.Among the 13 categories of performance on which people were asked to vote, the government has scored the maximum in ‘tackling corruption’, with 33% ticking the ‘excellent’ box. Six per cent think that there is more for the government to do to check corruption and have rated the government as poor.
For ‘power sector augmentation’ too, 67% of the people have rated the government’s performance as either average or poor.
An official source associated with the polling said, “A report on the poll results has been submitted to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and based on the findings he has chalked out strategies and policies to bridge the gaps. We hope to better the results when we carry out a similar poll at the end of the second year of the government in June next year.”
“The government has received the poorest rating in roads and communications and the CM has taken up this issue as a high priority. The floods have also damaged lot of roads and bridges. He has instructed that the repair work should start immediately after the rainy season by September-end,” the source said.
Congress leader Debabrata Saikia said the poll reflects the people’s frustration with the BJP-led government. “People have realized that the government has failed to live up to expectations. They made so many tall promises during the election campaign and have failed on every front. People are angry and that is why we are seeing mass protests almost every day across the state,” Saikia said. He added that instead of addressing the core issues, the state government seems to be engaged more in irrelevant issues.
In the ‘improving healthcare’ category, nearly 50% people have viewed the government’s performance as average or poor, while only 18% have rated it as excellent and 34% as good. Similarly, in the education sector, 15% have rated the government’s performance as poor, 31% as average, 36% as good and 18% as excellent. In another crucial category, ‘safeguarding wildlife’, 25% have rated poor, 29% as average, 31% as good and 15% as excellent.