Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Government employees in the city want their representatives to focus on basic issues like health, education and civic amenities. They want their representatives to be calm, farsighted and forgiving. They don’t want them to spread hatred and divide people.
This was what the government employees Free Press talked to said about their expectations from their representatives.
Excerpts:
Health & education
Over the past few decades, the focus of electoral politics has shifted to non-issues. I think that the basic and the most important issues for the people are just two - education and health. Education and health care should be free for every citizen. And free should not mean third-rate. The quality of education and health care in government institutions should be at par with their private counterparts. I would like my representatives to work in that direction. Then, they should also work to secure the rights of women and create opportunities for them.
-Suresh Tomar, Joint Director, Women and Child Development Department
Keep in touch
They should have a clean image. They should take prompt action on complaints made by the people. They should keep in touch with their voters. Just as policemen make rounds of their beat, the elected representatives should also make rounds of their constituencies. The people’s representatives are entitled to a Special Area Development Fund, which they can spend on development projects of their choice. My representative should ensure that 100 % of this fund is utilized and spent on the right things, for instance on making government schools better equipped.
-Nisha Kamrani, principal, Govt Vidya Vihar HSS
Cool, calm, forgiving
Our representatives should be cool, calm and positive. They should be good human beings and should have emotional intelligence. They should be able to control their temper and not be revengeful. They should believe in Gandhiji’s maxim that an eye for an eye will make the entire world blind. They should not divide the people to rule them. They should unite them. They should not spread hatred. They should spread love. They should be forgiving and farsighted. They should be a role model for me and everyone else.
-Jamal Akhtar, Professor, Government MLB College
Bring about development
They should work for development. I live in the Old City. Let alone lanes and by-lanes, even main roads are in bad shape. The Iqbal Maidan is dilapidated. Then, there are encroachments, which have made the narrow streets even narrower. Management of traffic is also poor. People break traffic rules at will because they know that they won’t be punished. They enter one-way streets from the wrong side.
-Iqbal Baig, PWD employee
Do something for middle class
I would like my representative to fulfil the demands of the state government employees, especially restoration of the old pension scheme. They should ensure that the benefits of the government schemes, which are funded by the taxpayers, reach the grassroots level and undeserving persons should not be able to take advantage of them. Also, they should work for the middle class. Almost all government schemes are made for the economically weaker sections. Some government policies benefit the rich. But the middle class gets nothing.
- Preeti Tripathi, Project executive e-Nagar Palika UADD
