HYDERABAD: Soothing frustrated and frayed public nerves is an age-old formula to bag votes. And in Secunderabad Cantonment, frustration is one emotion available in abundance.

With less than 50 days for elections, previews of the mumbo jumbo in most manifestoes look alike. Absence of stormwater drains figures in the sermons of all leaders.

Abolition of octroi and toll tax and the perennial water shortage are top-priority promises while underground drainage systems and repair of bad roads are not far behind. A few say their victory means they will merge civilian areas in the Cantonment with the State Government.

"You cannot forget the rampant corruption in SCB.We want to change that. We will also focus on delimitation of wards which was last done in 1974," says Bharatiya Janata Party's S. Mallareddy.

Women's issues

The Telugu Desam hopes to befriend women with its talk of highlighting women's issues, something Cantonment MLA G. Sayanna says TDP has been doing all along. "We took steps to provide gas connections and help women in several ways and to alleviate water scarcity. But now, because the SCB administration is not proper, the public are disappointed. We will do our best to help them and also try to get civilian areas merged with MCH. The Army undoubtedly is good at fighting. But the conditions here prove they are not good in administration," Mr. Sayanna says.

J. Pratap of the Congress, tipped to contest from Ward One, is perhaps the only candidate who can buttress his manifesto with a few "achievements", because he has been the lone civilian member in the Varied Board of the SCB since March 2004. "We managed to improve water supply from Metro Water Board and are also getting more water through the Angadipet pipeline project. Several main roads are being repaired, the tenders have been finalised," he points out.

One poll promise Mr. Pratap will repeat is the project to provide water connections to slums at just Rs. 100 per connection.

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