Villagers to boycott tri-level panchayat polls

Amethi: The inhabitants of Naya ka Purva, a hamlet of Darkha village in Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, today decided to boycott the ongoing tri-level panchayat polls alleging that “no development work” took place in their village.

The village falls under Amethi assembly segment led by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Cabinet Minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati.

Several people of the village today staged protests against the public representatives of different parties who won elections.

The villagers have alleged that the representatives never turned to the village for any development work including contact road or hand pumps for potable water.

A banner displayed by villagers outside the village reads “kam nahi to vote nahi” (no vote if no work) and “kisi pratyashi ka gaon me ana mana hai” (no candidate is allowed to enter the village for vote).

Some of the agitating villagers today raised slogans against local MLA and MP for their “negligence” towards development.

The villagers were agitating under the leadership of Babban Yadav who said that, “all the MLAs and MPs including the present one have cheated us by denying any development in the village.

“We have decided to boycott the ongoing tri-level panchayat polls because no development work has taken place in the village.”

He also charged that “we have no contact road or fresh potable water through our MLA (Prajapati who holds the berth of cabinet minister in state cabinet led by Akhilesh Yadav) and three-time MP Rahul Gandhi.”

Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Amethi Subhash Chandra Prajapati said that he along with circle officer of Amethi Ravi Kumar Chaturvedi visited the village today and collected information regarding the complaints of villagers and hoped that the matter will be resolved with their cooperation.