lakhs of Gajapati district Kui Kondhs have decided to abstain from voting in the coming general elections in order to protest the State Government’s apathy towards their demands.
“Even though we have brought our various demands to the notice of the Naveen Patnaik-led Government for three times staging mass conventions at Mohana, Nuagada and R Udayagiri, the latter’s lackadaisical attitude has forced us to decide to reject the coming polls,” said functionaries of the Kui Unnayan Samiti.
Samiti leaders like Prema Rayat, Nirmal Pal, Sarat Chandra Mallick, Prasant Mallick, Dakab Majhi, Harish Chandra Mallick and Dibakar Majhi have alleged that the State Government has turned deaf years to their long-standing demands.
Since long, we have been demanding to appoint Kui Kondhs as teachers under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, arrest non-tribals doing Government jobs on false Kui certificates and establish a residential high school for Kui Kondh girls at Birikote. But not a single demand has been met yet. “We would abstain from voting in order to mark our protest the State Government’s anti-Kui Kondh policy,” they said.