Two years of Modi govt: Survey says nearly half feel 'no change'

New Delhi: With the Modi government close to completing its two years in office, a new survey today said nearly half of the respondents (49 per cent) feel "no change" in their living standards while another 15 per cent feel the situation has actually worsened. The survey, conducted by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), further claimed that "a significant percentage (43 per cent) feels that poor people are not benefitting from programmes and schemes under the Modi government." At the same time, the 'performance appraisal' of the two years of the Modi government also found that Narendra Modi's performance as Prime Minister was being liked by a vast majority (62 per cent) and as many as 70 per cent wanted him to continue as Prime Minister beyond the first five years. The survey, of around 4,000 respondents across rural and urban areas of 15 states, still observed that less than one third feel the Prime Minister has fulfilled promises while around 48 per cent felt the promises have been met partially. "On whether living and life of people is any better today than two years ago, nearly half (49 per cent) feel 'no change' in scenario while 15 per cent feel that situation or conditions has worsened," the survey said. Announcing the survey results at a press conference here, former Secretary General of Lok Sabha Subhash C Kashyap said the personal image of the Prime Minister remains very bright and his performance is being liked by a majority. Modi's efforts to improve India's stand globally as well as improving administration at home got a thumbs up from a majority in the survey. "While NDA government's initiatives are generally appreciated, concern for increasing prices and unemployment at grass root continues," CMS Director General P N Vasanti said. Among major failures of the Union government, inflation was cited by 32 per cent of the respondents, followed by inability to provide employment (29 per cent) and inability to bring much talked about black money (26 per cent) -- one of the key promises made in the 2014 election manifesto. The major achievements cited in the survey included Jan Dhan Yojna (36 per cent), Swachh Bharat Mission (32 per cent) and efforts to bring foreign direct investment (23 per cent). In the assessment of individual union ministries, Railways scored the best, followed by Finance and External Affairs Ministries. The low-performing ministries included Labour and Employment, Law, Rural Development, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Social Justice and Empowerment. The ranking of the Union ministers was topped by Sushma Swaraj, followed by Rajnath Singh, Suresh Prabhu, Manohar Parrikar and Arun Jaitley in the top five. The low-ranked ministers in the survey were Ram Vilas Paswan, Bandaru Dattatreya, Radha Mohan Singh, J P Nadda and Prakash Javadekar. "Important ministers like Venkaiah Naidu (Urban Development) and Smriti Irani (HRD) stood as 'average' performers in their overall standing as the expecations were much higher," the report said. The assessment of ministries and Union Ministers was done based on four parameters - media presence, extent of activity on social media uilisation of MPLAD fund and people's opinion, it added.