Pithoragarh’s Deodar Village boycotts Gram Panchayat assembly by-elections

Pithoragarh. In the Pithoragarh assembly by-election, villagers on Monday made a complete boycott of polling of Gram Panchayat, Deodar (Deodar) of the assembly area amidst apathy of the voters. The number of registered voters were 461 in booth number 113. Booth was made at Government Primary School, Deodar, Development Block, Munakot. There were 216 male and 245 female voters among them, but despite the persuasion of the election observer and other officials, no voter came to vote, raising the slogan ‘Road nahi nahin vote’. Other polling personnel, including the presiding officer at the polling station, continued to walk the path of the voters, but the silence remained in place till evening. The villagers openly expressed their anger after Team HumariBaat contacted them.
The village panchayat Deodar is about 9 km from the district headquarters, has Udaibunga, Sinkhola and Nakhet villages in addition to the village cedar. According to village head Roshan Singh Valdia and senior citizen of the area, Kundan Singh Mosal, in 1952, the road from village Sangatta to Deodar through Bhilant was surveyed. After this, the crude route up to Bhilant was constructed, in 2008 the route was all concrete, after which vehicles started moving on it. But after some time the road was badly damaged. He said that the people of the area have been demanding for reconstruction of that damaged road from Sangatta to Deodar, a three-km stretch of this route, but no one is paying attention to their problems.

Villagers Narendra Singh Waldia, Sunil, Narendra Singh Mosal, Surendra Mosal, Ram Singh Waldia and Vimala Devi, etc., said that the lack of road from Sangatta to Deodar, increases their problems. The condition of this bumpy road is that no one gets 108 ambulance service when someone falls ill. No gas cylinder vehicle, school bus come to our village. Also, if a person dies in the area, then even the the transport vehicle refuses to come. for all work, one also has to go by barefoot on the 3 km raw route. The residents expressed their anguish that many children in the area attend private schools in the city, but parents have to take them to the three-km paved road through the forest from where they catch the school bus. And the same goes on after school vacation. The danger of wild animals remain separate among these troubles.

According to the villagers, they listed these problems in front of former MLA Mayukh Mehr and former cabinet minister, Prakash Pant, but despite this problems remain continue, they only got assurance till date. Due to this, they have decided to boycott the election this time. However, to convince the villagers to vote, election observer Rashid Khan and Assistant Returning Officer Dr. Vidya Sagar Kapri also reached Cedar, but the villagers did not change their decision.