The voters in Himachal Pradesh are seeking better employment opportunities, irrigation facilities for agriculture and better health services, revealed the Association for Democratic Reforms Survey (ADR).

“The finding are part of the survey of ADR that commissioned perhaps the largest ever Voter Survey in any country. The survey was conducted between October 2018 and December 2018, prior to the General Elections to the Lok Sabha 2019. It covered 534 Lok Sabha constituencies with 2, 73,487 voters participating in this exercise spread among various demographics,” said Himachal Election Watch State co-ordinator OP Bhuraita on Wednesday.

Better Employment Opportunities (63.60 per cent), availability of water for Agriculture (47.02 per cent) and Better Hospitals, Primary Healthcare Centres (41.10 per cent) are the top three voters’ priorities across the state.

As many as 2,000 voters in the state in all the four parliamentary constituencies were questioned based on the three main objectives that included identifying voters’ priorities on specific governance issues, voters’ ratings of the government’s performance on those issues, and factors affecting voting behaviour.

The survey also analysed 10 most important governance issues as rated by the voters of Himachal Pradesh (out of the 31 listed in the questionnaire) and these voters’ priorities are further examined in relation to the performance of the Government on those issues as perceived by the respondents.

In rural Himachal Pradesh, topmost voters’ priorities were Better Employment Opportunities (64 per cent), availability of water for agriculture (53 per cent) and better hospitals, primary healthcare Centres (41 per cent).

The rural voters stated that the performance of the government was below average and rated as 2.65 on a scale of 5 for Better Employment Opportunities, 2.60 for the availability of Water for Agriculture and 2.64 for better Hospitals, Primary Healthcare Centres.

The government has performed poorly on better public transport (2.39) and better roads (2.75) in rural Himachal Pradesh, they maintained.

For the urban voters in Himachal Pradesh, the topmost priorities were better employment opportunities and school education both at 60 per cent and eradication of corruption at 44 per cent.

The urban voters terming government performance below average rated the work done as 2.46 for better employment opportunities, 2.48 for school education and 2.54 for the eradication of corruption.

In addition, the government has performed poorly on Better Roads (2.58) and Better Hospitals/Primary Healthcare Centres (2.71) in urban Himachal Pradesh, reveals the survey. A three-level scale of good, average and bad was used, where good equalled to 5, average was 3 and bad was weighted as 1.