Natives of a village in Ballia district threaten to boycott election

VARANASI: Pamphlets with a headline –‘Chunav Bahiskar ki Ghoshna’ (Announcement of election boycott) are in circulation nowadays in a village in Rasra assembly constituency of Ballia district, which is going to poll in the sixth phase on March 4. The culprit is the ‘stagnant wastewater’ on the village road.
Irked by the apathetic attitude of local administration as well as elected representatives to their problem, the natives of Bhadaura village in Sahdesh Gram Panchayat in Rasra assembly constituency have decided to boycott the polling of assembly election.Through this ‘open letter’ (pamphlet) addressed to the Election Commission, they have taken this decision of poll boycott with utmost pain.

“The wastewater coming from 35 households continuously flows on the road causing lots of problem to the villagers. We raised the problem repeatedly during Tehsil Diwas and other occasions for remedial measures, but our voice remained unheard,” said a villager Sarvadev Singh adding that their main problem is the stagnant wastewater on village road due to lack of drainage facility. Some people of political backing have encroached the ‘gadahi’ (ditch) meant for the drainage of wastewater, he alleged.
According to him, there are 500 voters belonging to backward Lohar, Hajjam and Koyari communities in the village. “We also apprised the MLA of our problem, but nothing was done to resolve the issue,” he said adding the villager are extremely disappointed with the apathy shown by the officials and public representative.
“Finding no other option we decided to boycott the assembly election,” said another villager Ravi Pratap wondering what is the use of voting when there is no one to take care of them.
The Rasra seat is represented by the Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Uma Shankar Singh, who won the seat in 2012 assembly election defeating his nearest rival Sanatan of Samajwadi Party. Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.