Lucknow

Atal Behari Vajpayee(BJP)Won from Lucknow: 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999
Votes for Vajpayee: 48.11 per cent (last polls)

• Drinking water is in short supply and sometimes contaminated
• Sewage produced is 400 MLD, sewage treated is only 42 MLD
• Lucknow has over 600 slums
• The Gomti at Lucknow is so polluted that even fish cannot survive

Lucknow, the PM’s constituency, may hold the world record for the number of foundation stones for stillborn projects. Some of the foundation stones, too, are now crumbling. Meanwhile, the Lucknowite struggles for basic amenities like potable water, public transport and electricity.

Yet, on the face of it, Lucknow shines. Towering lamp posts, neat tarmac roads, lush green lawns. A casual visitor may be impressed, but for the Lucknowite, the city’s squalor remains untouched. "Decorating the city doesn’t fill anyone’s stomach, what has he done for the poor?" asks rickshaw-puller Babulal.

Close to BPJ strongman Lalji Tandon’s residence, in old Lucknow, the stench and filth is unbearable. "Had we an option, we wouldn’t have lived like dogs," says Madan Kumar, a slum-dweller in Baidantola, Mojamnagar. "Look for yourself at the dirty muddy water that we drink," says Rabbo Fatima.

An ambitious slum-dweller resettlement project, Balmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojna, targeted shifting 60 per cent of slum-dwellers, but only 6,000 people have been rehabilitated so far. And many families have returned as they were sent off far from the city where they found no means of livelihood.

In many areas, the groundwater is nitrate- and manganese-toxic, due to unplanned drains and release of sewage into the Gomti. The Gomti is so polluted that the oxygen level dips to zero in some patches. Says a Pollution Control Board official: "Even fish do not survive in that septic water."