9 more Lahaul panchayats join election boycott call

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 18

After Sissu and Koksar, as many as nine other gram panchayats of Pattan valley in the snowbound Lahaul-Spiti district, which falls in Mandi parliamentary constituency, have threatened to boycott the May 19 Lok Sabha elections on the ground that the Central and state government agencies have failed to restore road, air and communication facilities and electricity in the valley even after a month of heavy snowfall.

More panchayats are likely to join the “boycott call” as entire Mayar valley, 30 km from Udairpur and Tindi , about 25 km downstream of Chenab river from Udaipur town on the Udaipur-Killar-Sansari Nalla highway, remained cut off from the rest of the district and the outside world for over a month, tribals from Udaipur told The Tribune. A huge avalanche has blocked the valley after it received over six feet of snow, they claimed.

These gram panchayats are Mooring, Jahalman,Gohrman, Nalda, Jobrang, Baring, Shansha, Ranika and Warpa, revealed the letter these panchayats have sent to the deputy commissioner-cum-election officer, Lahaul-Spiti. The letter has also been sent to Governor seeking redress of their grievances.

There are 41 gram panchayats in Lahaul-Spiti. Out of these, 11 panchayats of Lahaul have now threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha elections.

As the state-run chopper failed to provide flights from Kullu, some tribals had hired a private chopper from Manali in protest and paid Rs 1.20 lakh per flight to a private operator last month. “As the private chopper is not allowed to land on the government-run helipads, tribals made it land on their private fields”, said Suresh kumar, a resident of Lahaul.

The tribals in Koksar and Sissu panchayat have already conveyed to the DC Lahaul-Spiti that they would boycott the Lok Sabha elections as they had no electricity, no connectivity road or air and no link with the outside word for over a month. 

PWD and HPSEBL engineers claimed that the electricity, link road to helipad and communication services have been restored in Udaipur town, but there are no flights from Udaipur to Kullu.

DC Ashwani Chaudhary said the BRO has cleared the highway beyond Tandi on the Sissu side and operation was on on the Udaipur side. They have kept all areas under flight schedule but the bad weather and heavy snowfall have disrupted all operations.

Number may increase further

More panchayats are likely to join the “boycott call” as entire Mayar valley, 30 km from Udairpur and Tindi , about 25 km downstream of Chenab river from Udaipur town on the Udaipur-Killar-Sansari Nalla highway, remained cut off from the rest of the district and the outside world for over a month, tribals from Udaipur told The Tribune.