Bengaluru: A majority of the welfare schemes introduced to uplift the poor by the Siddaramaiah government have received good ratings of over 50 per cent from the public, according to a survey by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Daksh.
As many as 13,244 respondents from across 224 constituencies were interviewed for the survey between December 2017 and February 2018. The report, titled ‘Brief analysis of voters’ priority in Karnataka: Importance of Issues and Performance of the Government’, was released here on Saturday during the 14th Annual National Conference on Electoral and Political Reforms.
The government’s flagship Anna Bhagya scheme, meant to alleviate hunger among BPL families, received good feedback, with 79 per cent of the respondents stating that they were happy with it, 14 per cent expressed dissatisfaction. About 6 per cent of the respondents said they did not use the scheme.
Krishi Bhagya, which aims to improve farmers’ income through rainwater harvesting and sustainable use of water, made 58 per cent of the respondents happy and 25 per cent, unhappy. About 17 per cent said they did not use it. The recently-launched Anila/Gas Bhagya to provide LPG connections to the poor made 64 per cent of the respondents happy and 23 per cent unhappy, with the remaining 14 per cent falling in the ‘do not use’ category.
Distribution of free cycles to students of class 8 in rural areas had 63 per cent of the respondents happy and 25 per cent unhappy. About 13 per cent did not avail the benefits of the scheme.
Shaadi Bhagya, a scheme often criticised as being part of minority appeasement, made 45 per cent of the respondents unhappy and just 16 per cent happy. Nearly 40 per cent of the respondents said they did not use the scheme.
