New Delhi : In four state and one Union Territory that went to the polls last year, price rise is the most important issue for the public, as cost of living and prices of essential commodities have shot up over the past one year, including LPG, cooking oil, auto fuel and other food items etc.
This was revealed during an exclusive survey conducted by CVoter on behalf of IANS in the four states — Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala — and the Union Territory of Puducherry, where Assembly elections were held in 2021.
As per the survey, price rise was the major problem, followed by unemployment and corruption, while religious conflicts and women’s safety were viewed as least cause of concern by the respondents.
The people are facing maximum problems due to inflation with all the five states/UT listing it as the major cause of concern.
When asked what according to you is the most important problem, 43 per cent of the respondents said price rise, followed by Kerala (37 per cent), Tamil Nadu (35 per cent), Assam (34 per cent) and West Bengal (25 per cent).
Unemployment emerged as the second most pressing issue, with 17.23 respondents in West Bengal listing it as most problematic after price rise, followed by Assam (14.61 per sent), Puducherry (12.29 per cent), Tamil Nadu (11.75 per cent) and Kerala (9.86 per cent).
Despite communal tensions being reported from various parts of the country, people in general didn’t seem to be much purturbed with the issue, except in Kerala where 14.35 per cent of the respondents cited it as a cause of concern.
Only 4.37 per cent of the respondents in Tamil Nadu flagged communal tensions as a cause of worry, followed by West Bengal (3.47 per cent), Assam (1.77 per cent) and Puducherry (Nil).
But the surprising element in the survey is that people doesn’t seem to be much worried about women’s security, which indicates that the situation of law and order is better now or the people are not bothered as on an average, in the five states/UT that went to the polls, 1.58 per cent of the respondents listed it as a cause of concern.
–IANS