Dabhadi group to boycott poll over ‘no’ devpt

Chandrapur: A group of residents from Dabhadi, a village in Arni tehsil of Yavatmal district where Narendra Modi had held ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ and had assured ‘Acche Din’ to farmers in 2014, have announced to boycott the Lok Sabha elections claiming lack of development.
The villagers are particularly disgruntled over pending repairs of a bridge on a nullah connecting the village to a temple.

Refuting the allegations, BJP candidate and sitting MP, Hansraj Ahir, claimed that development works wroth Rs3.5 crore were done in the small village during last five years.

Ahir said grants worth Rs3.5 crore under MP and MLA local development fund, PM mining royalty fund etc have been utilized for development of Dabhadi. “People have been coerced by the opposition parties to take such a decision and development is no issue there,” he said at a press conference on Thursday morning.

“Chai Pe Charcha was held in Dabhadi to address the farmers suicide and government has taken concrete measures to curb the menace in last five years,” he said. Arni MLA Raju Todsam corroborated his claims.

To a query about ensuring 6% hike in power tariff approved by MERC from April 1, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar claimed MERC is an independent body and it has approved an old proposal of tariff hike to maintain the balance between expenditure and income from power generation. “I will talk to power minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule over the issue and I am sure he will agree to withhold the tariff hike,” the minister said.