AHMEDABAD: The Election Commission of India (ECI) for the first time set up a polling booth for the 204 voters of Aliya Beyt in Bharuch. The booth was set up in a tin-shaded school on the beyt, which has a population of around 600. In the past elections, the beyt residents had to take a boat ride to Kaladra village to exercise their franchise. In the 2019 general elections, the administration had provided bus facility to the voters to bring them to the booths. There are 105 male and 99 female voters on the beyt.
The beyt is a part of the Kaladra gram panchayat. The polling officers, who had come to set up the booth, were treated with the traditional dishes of the community.
According to collector M Modia, a proposal was moved to the State Election Commission (SEC) to set up a booth on the beyt which was accepted. After the approval from the SEC, a booth for taluka and district panchayat elections was set up.
Mohammed Jat, a resident of the area, said, “We have been staying on the beyt since long. Even before Independence, our forefathers were residing here. The tribe here is Kutchi Muslim community. There is a kutcha road and a tent school here, and this is all we got in the name of government facilities.”
An another resident Salim Jat said that the village has no drinking water facility. “We have to to drive for 20km to bring drinking water,” he added.
The community is mainly into cattle rearing. The residents feel neglected by the government agencies. Some even treat them as encroachers. “We have been staying here for over a century now, how can we be called encroachers on the forest land,” said Salim.