Panchayat polls a lacklustre affair in villages of AP's migrant workers
KURNOOL: Amid the gram panchayat elections, a majority of villages in Adoni and Kurnool divisions are seeing people migrating to the cities. Though poll candidates are requesting them to stay on till the completion of the polls, the workers are not showing any interest.
At least 15,000 families from the district have left to Guntur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and other cities. Some of the aspirants even offered money and other benefits to the workers to keep them back but in vain.
Veeramma, a worker from Nelakosigi, said that their livelihood was more important than the elections. “Even though the entire family goes for work locally, they cannot earn even Rs 400 in a day,” she stated. “In cities like Guntur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and other places, each person gets more than Rs 800 per head.”
Her family including her husband and two children go to Guntur in every season. If the government provides ample employment, there is no need to go to any other place, Veeramma said.
Sai Prasad, a sarpanch candidate at Kowthalam mandal, said that in small villages with less than 1,000 population migrant workers form a big force. “If they don’t stay here, there will be no election atmosphere,” he said. “So we are requesting them to stay here still the elections are over but many of them are not listening to us,” he added.
The number of people moving out of villages would double in the next couple of weeks, right when the third and fourth phase of elections in Kurnool and Adoni divisions are held.
Officials said the government has given job cards to 9 lakh wage-seekers in the district but only 2.60 lakh are utilising them regularly. The rest were were mostly interested to go to other cities to search for livelihood every season.
The amount was not paid on a daily basis and there are many stipulations. More people have moved out from Kurnool district in the recent past, from Kosigi, Nandavaram, Aspari, Holagunda, Alur, Pathikonda, Devanakonda, Dhone, Yemmiganur, Kodumuru, Adoni, Krishnagiri and Mantralayam mandals.
A total 970 sarpanchs and 9,984 ward members will be elected in the elections which will end on February 21.
With the poll dates for the last two phases approaching, aspirants are busy striking deals to ensure that elections are avoided. Some candidates were said to be using political and caste equations and financial clout to get their rivals to withdraw. Polling will be conducted on February 13 for second phase, February 17 for third phase and February 21 for the final phase.
