In the presence of foolproof law and order arrangements made by the Delhi Police across all the polling booths in Delhi on Sunday, residents of Patel Nagar thronged the Government Boys School on Sunday. With four polling booths functional inside the school, the crowd swelled as the day progressed.
Talking to The Pioneer, a 28-year-old lawyer Kapil Madan, a resident of East Patel Nagar said, “I have cast my vote for development. Our area has poor road infrastructure, negligent parking space and we need a representative who can address these issues.”
Ramender Kaur, a 35-year-old accountant with a private firm in West Delhi, said, “like any other area in Delhi, Patel Nagar too faces problems of parking space and ill maintained parks. look at the school we all came to vote. Despite so much funds being spent, the buildings are not maintained, the shrubs are not trimmed. Moreover, the last time we all voted, we gave our votes to a party which instead of working towards development rather increased the tariff of electricity and water.”
Apart from the young professionals, senior citizens such as Shyam Prasad, a retired Government official said, “Issues such as poor roads and high electricity bills have been harrowing us. To bring a change, I came with my entire family to give vote.”
Suman, a resident of East Patel Nagar while leaving the poll booth said, “Garbage piles up in every area. Despite repeated pleas by the Resident Welfare Associations (RWA), nothing has been done. Moreover, there is so much encroachment on the road where vendors had set up small kiosks outside the homes and shops that literally we are left with negligent space to drive our vehicles.”
While there were several like Suman who had legitimate reasons as parking and garbage to cast their vote, there were many others like Neha who claimed that she came to vote just because she did not wanted to her waste her voting right.
Meanwhile, a few kilometres away, Reena Singh, an employee with an MNC in Gurgaon was excited to cast her vote on Sunday. A resident of West Punjabi Bagh in Northwest Delhi, the 24-year-old woman was accompanied by her sister to the Government. In the eagerness to give my vote, I forgot to carry my Aadhaar Card. I walked ten minutes in this weather. Even though i tried to convince the officials sitting inside the polling booth, I was not allowed.” Dejected, she added, “now I will not come to give the vote.”