The people of one of the farthest villages of the State- Chamoli’s Dumak have called for a ‘No Road No Vote’ protest ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The government had promised them to construct a road over a decade ago which is yet to be fulfilled due to which, the entire village has decided to boycott polls, claimed the villagers. According to them, the road construction project started in Dumak about 15 years ago under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The government spent crores of rupees on the project but the road is yet to be completed. The officials have to walk about 20 kilometres during elections to reach the polling booth here. The polling officials and political leaders ask locals to vote but nothing has changed for them. They said that they are forced to face this misery daily for the past several years but no cognisance is being taken by the government despite their several protests.
The president of the Vikas Sangharsh Samiti Rajendra Singh said that they have no updates about the progress of the project and officials are also not giving them any satisfactory response. Everybody has been feeling betrayed by this unreasonable delay considering which, the villagers decided to boycott the polls. The government has consistently neglected their issue and now, they will boycott polls as the governments over the years have failed them, he added.
