Villagers at many places boycott poll seeking redressal of their grievances in Almora Lok Sabha seat
Listen to this articleVillagers at many places boycott poll seeking redressal of their grievances in Almora Lok Sabha seat
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, April 19
Some villagers called for boycott of polls in Almora, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar and Champawat districts of Almora (reserve) constituency as polling was held today.
These villages included, Thapaliakhera in Tanakpur sub-division of Champawat assembly constituency in Champawat district, Dhanaulasera in Gangolihat assembly constituency in Pithoragarh district, Saipolo polling booth in Dharchula assembly of Pithoragarh district and Agarkot in Bageshwar district.
“I,m not going to vote this time as our village has remained cut off from the motor road despite 23 years of formation of separate hill state and no public representative have reached us to address our problems. We feel alienated in present set up of the state,” said Shivraj Singh Banola, (50) a Government contractor and Zila panchayat member from Machul village of Dhauladevi block of Jageshwar assembly constituency of Almora parliamentary seat.
“We have a total of over 505 voters in our polling booth and we had called for boycott. The administration has any how managed 3 votes of physically challenged voter of our village, but I am not going to vote for want of road to our village,” said Devi Dutt Pandey,(65) a villager of Matiyali village of Bageshwar district.
“We have several time send applications seeking linking of our village with road. Despite efforts by administration only four votes were polled. I am not interested to vote if our village does not get a road link,” said Ranjit Singh Koranga,(47), a villager from Saipolu polling in Munsiyari.
Administration acted promptly to address the grievances of villagers to manage the end of boycott and ensure maximum polling.”We have talked to Agarkot villagers and they became ready to resume polling,” claimed Anuradha Pal, District Magistrate, Bageshwar.
Voters in Saipolu village of Munsiyari called for boycott of Lok Sabha polls demanding road to their village.”We have been demanding a 5 km long road to our village from the highway going to Milam from Munsiyari but no one heard us. We have called for poll boycott to attract attention of officials towards our problems,” said Ram Singh, Gram Pradhan of Saipolu.
In Bajad polling booth of Gangolihat assembly constituency, out of three villages, maximum of voters from Dhanaulasera village did not go to vote.”The villagers who had taken an oath on 15th of this month to not vote till the village is linked by a two km motorable road, did not go to vote, but the villagers from other two villages, Banjar and Kunet, took part in voting normally,” said Saurab Singh, a villager from Dhanaulasera village.
The villagers of Suniakot in Ranikhet assembly constituency did not turn up to vote till 11 am today demanding a 11 km long road from Kakrighat to Suniakhet but later started voting on the appeal of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Ranikhet.”Our team has heard the villagers carefully and assured them to meet their demands after the polls are over. The villagers have started casting their votes now,” said Varuna Aggrawal, SDM, Ranikhet.
