Villagers in three districts displayed the mite of their vote power to draw the attention of the concerned authorities regarding their day to day plight, for want of better roads and other civic amenities.
The residents of Bethalpadu village in Jularpadu mandal of Khammam district adopted a novel protest of making use of their vote power to get their demands conceded for the development of their villages and thandas.
Angered and annoyed over the failure of the ;political leaders in paying attention to bad condition of the roads in the village and the inaction of the authorities to repair them or lay fresh roads despite numerous representations, the villagers including a large number of women and youth barricaded the entry to the village . They sat in protest on the road and declared that they would not exercise their vote till the District Collector gave a written assurance to set things right. All the protesting villagers numbering over 2000, carried their voter ID cards.
About 800 women belonging to various Dwacra societies in Tandur of RR district declared their decision to boycott polling as a protest against siphoning off their funds by officials and political leaders. The men in the village also said that they would not vote till the authorities assured to take the cleansing of water tank and repairs to the roads.
All the residents of a lambada thanda in Wanaparthy district too decided to refrain from voting as a protest against lack of civic amenities.(NSS).
