Villagers say ‘no progress, no vote’

Assembly elections are just over a month away and villagers in Madanpura village of Kota district have decided to boycott it due to “lack of development and amenities”.

“Vikas nahi to vote nahi (no development, no vote),” reads a banner put up in the village in Khatoli region of Pipalda assembly constituency, Kota.

“There was no work to develop roads and drains here in the past three years following a court case over the encroachment of pasture land,” said Shambhu Kumar, a villager. Unhygienic conditions were prevailing in the district after mud accumulation at several places due to lack of roads and drains, he said.

“The places where mud is accumulated are now breeding sites for mosquitoes and sources of diseases but the administration is not bothered,” said Jagdish Keer, another villager. “Also, poor villagers are yet to get houses sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana,” he added.

Mangilal, another villager, said there is no benefit of the Ujjwala scheme of the Union government under which free LPG connections were provided to the villagers. “Since there has been no development of any kind in the village in the past three to four years, we will not vote in the coming assembly election,” he said.

There are around 500 voters, mostly from Kewat and Keer communities, in the village.

Sarpanch of Madanpura village, Ruchita Kumari, said there was a vast stretch of government land in the village, a major portion of which was alloted to a private contractor and businessman of Khatoli area. “These voters have been residing on the disputed land for the past 70 years and the businessman obtained a stay order on land conversion and development activities from court in 2013 after which works were halted,” she said.

“Neither construction of toilets under the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan nor allotment of the houses under PM Awas Yojana could be done due to the land dispute,” she said.

KOTA: