NEW DELHI: The Union ministries of agriculture, housing and urban affairs, and labour and employment have fared as worst performers in an online survey that asked netizens to evaluate the work done by ministries in the last four years. Incidentally, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government will complete four years in office next week.
More than 10,000 ratings were submitted to social media platform LocalCircles regarding performance of the ministries. Overall, only 16 out of 49 ministries received a citizen rating of 3.5 and above. Netizens rated defence ministry as the best performer, giving it a rating of 4.9 out of 5. Agriculture, and labour and employment ministries came last with a rating of 2.1 out of 5. The dismal ratings of agriculture ministry could be due to the growing public discontent about the condition of farmers and the ministry’s failure to address grievances. Farmers are struggling to pay debts and also unhappy with prices fixed for their crops.
Given high rate of unemployment, the poor rating of the ‘labour and employment’ ministry was obvious. Although the extension of maternity leaves was received well by the citizens, not enough new jobs being created for the youth was a major point of discontent among citizens.
The urban affairs ministry, which handles flagship urban transformation schemes such as Smart City Mission, is among the worst performers. Tough handling of Pakistan, countering terrorism and increasing budgetary spends on defence were among the major factors for the positive rating of the ministry headed by Nirmala Sitharaman. The surgical strikes conducted in 2016 to destroy terrorist training camps by crossing the Line of Control sent a strong message that India has had enough, and terrorism will no longer be tolerated, according to survey participants.
The Ministry of External Affair stood second with a rating of 4.2 out of 5. This could be accredited to the MEA’s exceptional work done in evacuating India’s from the war-torn countries, and the cordial relations that it has built with countries across the world. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been accessible to the people via social media and personally making sure that Indians in emergency situations in any part of the world are taken care of, the survey says.
WOMEN POWER
Both the Ministries of External Affairs and Defence — the top two performers —are headed by women ministers. Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman have quietly managed work but are also active on social media.
