Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has been voted to power once again after winning over 265 seats in the 2022 legislative assembly election. While some political experts anticipated Akhilesh Yadav of the Samjawadi Party to give strong competition to Yogi Adityanath-led BJP, and despite it increasing over 80 seats as compared to last election, it could only hit the 130-seat mark. BJP winning the assembly election for two consecutive terms in Uttar Pradesh is historic as typically the state has been voted out of the government in power after the first term, replacing it with the primary opposition party.
Survey agency LocalCircles, over the last 90 days, has been conducting an extensive evaluation of the 5 years of the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh Government.
The LocalCircles received over 70,000 responses from residents in 51 districts of Uttar Pradesh. 70% of the participants were men while 30% were women. Of the total participants, 36% were located in tier 1 districts, 28% were from tier 2 districts and 36% were from tier 3, 4 districts and rural districts.
In the survey, an overwhelming majority of respondents (78%) have said that UP’s main issue – law & order situation – has improved in the past 5 years. Similarly, 76% people have said that power suppy situation has improved in their districts.
78% citizens say Law & Order in Uttar Pradesh has improved in the last 5 years
The Uttar Pradesh Government has been time and again criticised for the blatant violation of rule of law in the state. Recently, a civil society group comprising academics, intellectuals and former bureaucrats had to write an open letter to highlight the blatant violation of the law on the various ground such as police attacks on peaceful protests, minorities, etc. Even the opposition has been hitting hard on the Yogi Adityanath-led UP Government over an alleged deterioration of the law and order situation in the state, stating that criminal activities are rampant in the state. Earlier, the state’s party spokesperson had assured to control rage-driven crimes, and ensured that police are working relentlessly towards putting criminals behind bars. The UP Government claims that as many as 150 criminals have been killed in encounters while National Security Act had been slapped on 630 people and 44,759 have been booked under the Goonda Act. Overall, a lot of citizens in the LocalCircles communities have been expressing improvement in the law and order situation in recent times and expressing the need to continue on this path.
The next question tried to understand UP residents’ pulse on how they rate the Law & Order situation in their district in the last 5 years. Notably, the majority, 56% of UP residents say there has been a “significant improvement” of law & order in their state in the last 5 years, while 22% say there has been “some improvement”. Breaking down the poll, 7% of UP resident say there has been “no improvement”, 6% say it has “gotten worse”, and 9% say it has “gotten significantly worse”. On an aggregate basis, 78% of UP residents say Law & Order in their state has improved in the last 5 years, while 22% say it has not. This question in the survey received 4,897 responses.
76% citizens say power supply in their district in Uttar Pradesh has improved in the last 5 years
Power cuts have historically been one of the top issues for residents of Uttar Pradesh. The number of unelectrified households stood at 2,53,785 till August-end in 2020. The Yogi Government claims that concrete steps are being taken in streamlining power generation, transmission and distribution through the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism. Similar to law & order, citizens have been expressing their positive experiences with the power supply in the last few years.
The question in the survey tried to better understand from UP’s residents about how they rate improvement in power supply in their district in the last 5 years. In response, the majority of 55% of UP residents surveyed said the situation regarding power supply in their district has “significantly improved”, while 21% said there has been “some improvement”. Breaking down the poll, 12% of residents said there has been “no improvement”, another 5% said it has “gotten worse”, and 4% said it has “gotten significantly worse”. On an aggregate basis, 76% of UP residents say that the power supply in their district has improved in the last 5 years of Yogi Governance, while 21% say it has not. This question in the survey received 4,901 responses.
80% citizens of Uttar Pradesh say cleanliness level in their district has improved in the last 5 years
Over the years, the Uttar Pradesh Government has implemented various cleanliness drives across the state. In October 2019, for example, the state Government launched an extensive cleanliness drive with a special focus on single-use plastic goods covering all 75 districts. It put up several hoardings spreading awareness to contribute to making cities clean. Last year, before the pandemic hit the country, UP had implemented a 5-point charter to all local bodies, district program managers and coordinators to ensure cleanliness in their area, like garbage-free, open defecation free, improving ratings, along with solid and liquid waste management. The State Government had said the officers tasked with cleanliness exercises would be held accountable if the state doesn’t perform well in the cleanliness drive.
The first question in the survey tried to better understand from the residents of Uttar Pradesh how they rate the improvement in cleanliness in their district in the last 5 years. In response, the majority of 56% of citizens said there has been “significant improvement”, and 24% said “some improvement” in cleanliness levels in their districts in the last 5 years of Yogi Governance. Only 10% of residents said there has been “no improvement”, 4% said it has “gotten worse”, and 6% said it has “gotten significantly worse”. On an aggregate basis, 80% of UP residents say that cleanliness level in the district has improved in the last 5 years, while 20% say it has not. This question in the survey received 4,895 responses.
Disclaimer: The above survey was done by LocalCircles in its individual capacity. Any errors in the article above will be the sole responsibility of LocalCircles.
