Red-hit Nuapada hamlet says no to polls

Anupgad (Nuapada): Anupgad village under Painr gram panchayat in Nuapada district, stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the state where election activity has reached fever pitch.
The village carries on with its regular activities without a hint of the do-or-die election knocking on the doors elsewhere. This Maoist-hit area goes to the polls on April 11 in the first phase.

A striking feature of the village is that there are no political posters, hoardings or wall-writings.

No political leader will be seen campaigning here and the microphone-mounted vehicle for canvassing will not be visible.

Fed up with years of neglect, the residents of the village have taken a united stand not to exercise their franchise this time.

They are preventing political workers from entering the village and putting up posters, such is the collective anger. The hamlet has about 47 families and basic facilities still elude them.

There were 12 more families in the village, but after the Maoists killed a teacher in neighbouring Patpani, Chaitanya Majhi in 2014, suspecting him to be a police informer, they left the village permanently along with 13 families in Patpani, which is located at a height of about 2,000 ft above the sea level.

Among the basics that this village cries for is a road. Reaching the village through a rocky climb is not easy. A concrete road joins the main road towards the village but runs only up to 500 metres.

The village from there is still another 1.5 km. All that the villagers have to do in case of an emergency is to take the patient in a cot up the accessible road and call a taxi to take him to hospital. Sometimes, they also take the help of a motorcycle.

Puranmati Majhi, a villager, asked, “Why should we vote? We have been running from pillar to post but we don’t have access to drinking water. This time we have decided not to vote. We are not allowing anybody to come to us with false promises.”

The villagers had dug a well five years ago, which has been converted into a tube well by connecting a pipe down the well and using a hand pump at the top of the well.

Since the bore well machine can’t come to the village, this was done by the officials after years of persuasion. And, this is the only source of drinking water.

Lochan Majhi, another villager, said they will ask other people from neighbouring villages to also boycott the elections.

“Let the politicians first ensure the basic facilities, and then they can come and seek votes. We have been begging for water and roads for years,” said Majhi.

Block development officer (Komna) Shyamal Ray said Anupgad is a chronic water distress area.

“For the summer months, we will send water tankers to the village,” he told TOI.