More than 200 tribal voters of Badsol village of Kanimahuli panchayat under Suliapada block in Mayurbhanj district have decided not to cast their votes in the panchayat polls this time. The reason: Even after 70 years of the country’s independence, they have to live and languish without electricity.
The poor, neglected villagers have been trying hard to get electricity connection in their village for the last ten years by approaching different officials starting from the BDO to the district Collector, from Energy Department employees to elected representatives. But their efforts have yielded no result. So finally, they have decided to boycott the panchayat polls as a mark of protest against the administration’s indifference.
Due to lack of electricity, they face problems. Their children’s study is hit hard, they lament.
To register their protest on the issue and in a yet another attempt to draw the attention of the concerned authorities to their grievance, the villagers on Sunday took out a lantern procession in their area. While tribal activists like Sriram Murmu and Suklal
Marandi led the procession, even the women agitators stoutly shouted slogans against the “Government’s indifferent and insensitive attitude towards them”.
Fact is this “dark village” is only 14 km from the district headquarters town of Baripada and comes under the district’s only General category Assembly Constituency Morada, which is presently represented by none other than Maharaja Praveen Chandra Bhanjdeo, who is also a former Minister.