The residents of Dombivli, Milap Nagar who threatened to boycott the general elections now have adopted a wait and watch approach. The reason behind this mellow down is the construction of internal roads in their area. And the residents hope that the lure of votes might bring some development in their area.
For past one year over 18,000 residents of Dombivli's Milap Nagar have been threatening to boycott general as well as assembly elections. These residents face many issues like bad roads, pollution which also affect their health. After many requests to the various government authorities and politicians the residents decided to boycott general elections.
"Our corporator as well as the MP is from Shiv Sena. And we have to deal with bad roads and pollution. Our demands fall on deaf ears," said Ramesh Deshpande, one of the residents.
However, This area is now seeing some development after two decades. "Since past four days MIDC have started building parts of internal roads in our area. This is happening after 20 years," said Raju Nalavade, president, Dombivli Milap Nagar Association.
The residents of Dombivli MIDC were earlier under the KDMC (Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation) limits, then in 2002 they were put under Gram Panchayat jurisdiction, and in 2015 again the KDMC took them under their wings.
Because of this, their demands were tossed between the authorities. But the coming Loksabha elections has given them hopes of progress. "Now our pending piped gas applications are also being approved fast. All this may be due to the approaching election," he said.
Hence, the residents have reserved their right to boycott elections. "We will see what progress takes place in our area in the next one month. And will decide on whether to boycott or not," he added.
After April's Lok Sabha election, there are assembly elections in October followed by KDMC election next year. The residents are hopeful that this race to the ballot box will help them gain maximum development.