‘No road, no vote’: Villagers boycott poll in Chamba

Chamba, June 1

Barring calls of election boycott at a few booths, polling for the Lok Sabha election was peaceful and smooth across the five Assembly constituencies in Chamba district, with a voter turnout of 64.69%.

Four Assembly segments in Chamba district — Churah, Chamba, Dalhousie and Bhattiyat — are part of Kangra parliamentary constituency, while the Bharmour segment comes under the Mandi constituency.

Voters began queuing up at polling stations early in the morning.

Voting got off to a brisk start and slowed down after temperature soared only to pick up by late afternoon.

Polling was held across 631 polling stations. The district has 4,09,227 registered voters. As per the provisional data, Churah Assembly segment recorded 68.37% turnout followed by 66.48% in Chamba, 63.48% in Bhattiyat, 63.32% in Dalhousie and 61.6% in Bharmour. In a heartening scene, 105-year-old Sardar Piar Singh walked to the polling booth at Hattnala in Chamba town to cast his ballot. At green polling booths in Hudan Bhatroi and Purthi in Pangi, senior citizens celebrated their civic duty by planting saplings after voting.

Boycott over poor

road connectivity

Meanwhile, voters in some villages in Churah, Bharmour, Chamba and Dalhousie Assembly constituencies boycotted the election in protest against the lack of road connectivity.

In the Churah constituency, residents at Makkan-Chachool polling booth-25 demanded better road connectivity and refused to cast their vote.

Out of 725 registered voters, a few cast their ballot. Administrative and departmental teams tried to persuade the villagers till late evening, but they refused to budge from the stand.

The villagers made it clear that they would vote only if the Deputy Commissioner visited them to hear their demands.

Churah Tehsildar Rakesh Kumar and his team arrived at the scene to hear out the villagers and encouraged them to vote, but to no avail. Sanwal is located on Himachal Pradesh’s border with Jammu and Kashmir. The remote area lacks basic infrastructure. The villagers had boycotted the 2019 Lok Sabha election, too, yet their demand for road remains was not fulfilled. Villagers at the Jury booth in Churah’s Charda also boycotted the election. Similarly, residents of Fagdi and Rambho in Bharmour constituency abstained from voting due to unfulfilled demand of road infrastructure.

In Chamba constituency, residents of Sara village in Rajindu Gram Panchayat abstained from voting. There are 190 voters in the village.

In the Dalhousie Assembly constituency, residents in Sagoti village, which has 403 voters, boycotted the poll. Naib Tehsildar Bhupendra Singh said the villagers demand a road from Garzhindu to Sangoti.

Residents of Jutrun booth in Naddal Gram Panchayat, with 548 voters, also boycotted the election, citing the lack of roads, health, and educational facilities.