Patna, home to about two million people, is on the cusp of yet another election that generally brings with it a series of blandishments from the ruling party as well as from those looking forward to replace it.

Life in the city, where leaders keep on talking about things like world-class rapid mass transport system and similar things, is virtually hellish. Residents, in fact, are bereft of even basic civic amenities like clean drinking water, proper system for garbage disposal and streetlights.

Sample this: Water from taps in Saidpur in east central Patna is black in colour and stinks.

"Over a thousand residents of this locality are facing this curse for months and there is no one to look into our problems. Life, in fact, has changed for the worse in the past few years. I don't know how leaders gather courage to come to us and ask for votes," said 59-year-old Dilip Sah, a resident of this locality.

Most of the residents of the area The Telegraph spoke to have somewhat similar things to say.

"Forget about the tap water supply, even the hand pumps give out dirty water. Neither the civic body officials nor anyone from the government care for us," said Prem Kumar, a businessman.

Jakkanpur in central Patna, a few kilometres west of Saidpur, life is no different.

"Though we are using a costly water purifier, the supply water is so poor that sometimes even the machine fails," said Girija Devi, a resident of the locality.

A visit to Gardanibagh in south Patna, which houses several government quarters and also a hospital and a stadium, brings forth a different problem. Here people are facing the garbage menace.

Asha Devi, a resident of the area, never keeps her doors open fearing the garbage stink. Asha stays near Gardanibagh hospital. Heaps of garbage could be found dumped near the hospital. "The municipal corporation workers are dumping garbage here for the past eight months. Our life has become miserable," she said, blaming Patna Municipal Corporation officials.

The garbage menace is visible in every locality of the city and the civic body has failed to utilise about Rs 35 crore of central funds, which had been provided to Patna for developing an integrated solid waste management system.

If the light of the day exposes the lack of basic amenities, the evenings turn out to be darker in most of the localities of Patna thanks to the absence of streetlights. But apart from a few main stretches like Bailey Road, Fraser Road and Boring Road, one hardly comes across streetlights while moving around the city after sunset.

Manoj Kumar, a bank employee residing near LCT Ghat, said: "A few days ago, I had a miraculous escape while coming back home after the day's work. A sudden flash of headlight from a vehicle coming from the opposite direction almost blinded me. I lost control and hit the pavement. The darkness almost killed me."

There are many more tales of residents from localities like Kankerbagh, Gosain Tola, Gardanibagh, Vijay Nagar, Jadgdeo Path among others.

A query from people's representatives and from the government evoked responses on somewhat expected lines.

BJP MLA Nitin Navin, who represents Bankipore constituency under which most of the central Patna falls, attributed the problems to the government. "The failure of the state government to ensure effective implementation of Patna water supply project is the root cause of the problem," he said.

BJP MLA from Kumhrar Arun Sinha, too, put the onus on the state government and had nothing to say when his attention was drawn to the fact that even his own party was part of the government for over seven years. "The government is responsible for the problem and it owes an answer to the people," he said.

Urban development and housing minister Awadhesh Kumar Kushwaha said his department was facing manpower crisis earlier because of which most of the development works could not be done.

"Now, we have taken steps and after the elections, a special recruitment drive would be launched and the problems faced by the residents would be addressed on a priority basis," he said.

Abha Lata, the councillor of ward number 4, said the PMC did not purchase sanitation-related machines and it did not engage enough people for such programmes. "Tractors and sanitation-related equipment have not been purchased by the corporation because of which we are facing a lot of problem. All councillors are facing the problem," she said.

Residents, however, are not convinced. "A government, which didn't deliver for the past 10 years, now wants us to believe that it would do the needful in the next five years. It is nothing but a crude joke with which we have learnt to live," said Rajkumar Mishra, a Boring Road resident.