lok-sabha-elections

Updated: May 01, 2019 13:51 IST

Several villagers of Balawas village under Hisar-1st block and Nalwa assembly segment of Hisar district have decided to boycott the Lok Sabha elections, alleging local administration and government apathy.

The decision has been taken under the leadership of sarpanch Suresh Kumar and the villagers have begun staging dharna near the village bus stop. The locals say they will not allow any political party to come to the village for campaigning.

Balawas village sarpanch Suresh Kumar said, “We took the decision due to government and local administration apathy. In our case, the village had around 57 acres of common land, which was sold off to some persons in connivance with the administration in the 1980s. After that, not even a single inch of land was left in the hands of the village panchayat. However, with the Supreme Court verdict that common land in the village cannot be sold to private persons, the panchayat reclaimed the ownership of the land.”

He further said the state government mutated the ownership of the land in the favour of the village panchayat. Sarpanch Kumar claimed that on October 1, 2018, CM Manohar Lal Khattar announced the construction of a waterworks project at an estimated Rs 1.85 crore. But the local administration objected to the project saying the land cannot be used for construction of waterworks due to non-availability of court orders. Even after the panchayat got the orders from the Punjab and Haryana high court, the project could not materialise as the local officials informed them that nobody had participated in the tender bid for construction of the waterworks.

Suresh Kumar further said the village panchayat even met the CM on August 14 and met the local MLA regarding the issue as the village is totally dependant on water supply from adjoining villages. The villagers too, have not been getting proper water supply over the past four years.

Protesters Shiv Kumar and Jasbir Singh said that, “Under the leadership of village sarpanch, we took the decision on April 28, that not a single person will vote in the Lok Sabha election. There are almost 1,600 voters in the village with more than 450 resident families. The decision was taken after communicating with the chhatis biradari (36 community).

When contacted, local MLA Kamal Gupta said, “No one has approached me recently, but if the villagers are facing any problem, the government will sort out their problem soon. Deciding not to vote is not a correct decision.”

Despite repeated calls, Hisar deputy commissioner Ashok Kumar Meena was not available for comments.