Aravalli village boycotts LS poll over water woes

PALANPUR: Most villagers in remote Kolvada village in Dhansura taluka of Aravalli district boycotted the Lok Sabha election on Tuesday over pending water issues.


The polling officials on Tuesday waited for the voters at the two polling stations set up in the village primary school. Of the total 1,248 voters, only 67 cast their votes.

Even after repeated appeals by the district authorities the villagers refused to vote as a mark of their protest. The village falls under the Sabarkantha parliamentary constituency.

“The villagers had informed the district administration about the boycott well in advance, even before the model code of conduct came into force,” said Dinesh Patel, husband of the village sarpanch Radha Patel.

“We had put forward a list of the grievances to the state government officials in Gandhinagar. Our major demands included supply of water, both for drinking and irrigation. We get water once in four days,” he said.

Several farmers have sold off their land at throwaway prices due to unavailability of water for irrigation.

“The village has 1,400 acre of non-irrigated land. We also demanded road connecting our village with Shantipura Kampa. But the government turned deaf ears to our grievances,” Dinesh alleged.

“We had requested the villagers to vote but they refused to come out and vote,” said deputy district election officer P C Dave, claiming that the act of the villagers cannot be termed as boycott.