In the run up to Lok Saba polls,the NC-Congress alliance is promising everything to woo the rural voters. From their poll promise of getting electrified the unelectrified villages in the rural areas,the coalition leaders who are jointly campaigning in the polls are promising that the government will provide drinking water to all the villages within three years. We are addressing 10-12 rallies almost on daily basis in rural areas to woo the voters said NC Provincial President,Rattan Lal Gupta. NC's poll promises range from electrifying all those areas where the power supply was missing within a period of two years to providing the continuous water supply in the rural areas within three years. Among the other promises of the coalition include the revision in the list of people living below the poverty line and also providing the road connectivity in all those areas within six years which are without this basic infrastructure. During the tour to different rural areas we found that these areas have been facing problems in all the fronts including the lack of education opportunities. It is our agenda that in every rural area the children have access to education Gupta said. While the NC has revived its block and district units in the rural areas,the Congress has directed its workers to carry forward the party agenda for ensuring the victory of coalition candidates. However while Congress and NC promise new initiatives,the ruling alliance is also reminding the people the work which its sitting MPs have done in their respective constituencies. Both the coalition candidates,Madan Lal Sharma and Lal Singh,who have been fielded on the Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats remind the people about the works which they have initiated in their constituencies and which have remained incomplete to be carried forward by them. However BJP says that the even in earlier rule when the Congress was in coalition with People's Democratic party (PDP),it has failed on all fronts and in fact corruption has taken root in the state due to the policies of previous governments. State BJP Spokesman,Ramesh Arora,said,Jammu region has witnessed discrimination by Congress and NC. The total area of the Jammu region is 26,000 sq km against the area of 15400 sq km for Kashmir region. However the developed road network in Jammu especially from rural areas is less than that from Kashmir. Corruption has only been institutionalised under the coalition rule. Scale of corruption is so high that most of the block development officers (BDOs) refuse to clear the works of people unless they are paid 40 per cent commission. BJP State Spokesman also accused that even as NC and Congress have been ruling the state for the last over 50 years,there has been no change in the condition of people. The border migrants have to face the problems every time whenever there are skirmishes with Pakistan. There is no permanent accommodation for them he added. To counter the other political parties,BJP is promising the rural voters that its MPs will get the loans waived for the farmers. Most of our population lives in rural areas and they bank on agriculture for their daily income. However both due to the lack of proper irrigation facilities and the agricultural inputs the farmers are facing a lot of problems said the BJP state spokesman.
