About 220 voters in Ward-3 of Bambilo village under Khamalo Gram Panchayat of the Patkura Assembly segment have decided to boycott the lok Sabha and Assembly elections, scheduled to be held on April 17 to protest against the shifting of a nearby polling station to another location, which is about 7 km from the village.
According to the electorates, booth no-22 of Bishok primary school where they used to cast their vote in the past has been shifted to Fogala Janhimula UP School. Opposing the move, the villagers brought to the notice of the District Election Officer-cum-Collector and BDO of Derabish their inconveniences to move to a distant place for casting votes in the ongoing scorching summer. They demanded steps for making a booth nearby their village. However, the district administration did not take any step in this regard prompting the villagers to decide to boycott voting.
According to one Manoj Kumar Das of Bambilo, while the Election Commission has ordered to set up polling stations within a distance of 1 to 1.5 km to facilitate voting, in his village the distance of the polling station is nearly 7 km. In past elections, the Bishok UP School used to be a polling station which is near the village.
As the summer is at its peak, it is too difficult for the electorates to go to the Phogala Janhimula UP School. Besides, in the village as many as 40-50 electorates are in the age group of 50-60 years, said Jayadeb Jena, another villager.
“Despite repeated pleas, the authority did not pay any heed to our demand, As a result, we have decided to boycott the polls,” stated Rina Sahu. When contacted, Returning Officer of Patkura Assembly segment Pratap Kumar Mishra stated that he would ask the ARO -cum BDO of Derabish Block to conduct an inquiry in this regard and if the distance of the polling station is more than 1.5 km, then district administration would take necessary steps for formation of another booth.