Court stay on Kota village spurs poll boycott call
MADANPURA(KOTA): Now that elections are due, politicians are asking for our votes. They assure us that they will help. But no one helped us in five years. We don’t want to vote for them.
MOHAL LAL KEVAT, villager
While leaders of all hues are criss-crossing the state seeking votes, a village in Kota district has decided to boycott the assembly elections as development work has stopped due to a court stay.
Madanpura which is part of Khatoli village, about 80 km from Kota on the Madhya Pradesh border, has seen no development in the last five years due to the court stay. A banner hangs at the village entrance reading ‘Vikas nahi toh vote nahi’ (No development, no vote).
Lokendra Nagar, a villager, said, “All development work has come to a standstill. Roads, houses, toilets, and drinking water facilities have all been stopped.”
Bajrangi Bai, another villager, said, “There is no paved road in our village. Dirty water from latrines is stagnating on the roads as no canals have been built.”
There are around 250 houses in the village. A local businessman, Madan Mohan Goyal, had given the land on which the village is settled. After he passed away 10-12 years back, his sons have been seeking return of the land, said Lekhraj Singh, a former sarpanch.
Goyal’s sons filed a petition in court seeking a stay on any work in the village. Since then villagers are running from pillar to post trying to find a way out.
Tikam Goyal, son of Madan Mohan, said his father had bought 214 bigha land in an auction and of this he had donated 24 bigha in 1967 on which the village was settled. “However later the villagers began encroaching more land and have encroached about 24-25 bigha more,” Goyal said.
Lekhraj Singh said the village was settled on 16 bigha ‘sawai chak’ land that belongs to the government. “The land on the left side of the road belongs to Goyal while that on the right is government land.”
Shambhu Lal Kevat, a teacher from the village, said, “No government scheme can reach here. Goyal is a big man and officials are favouring him.” The villagers, he said, have met Itawa SDM Sanjeev Kumar Sharma and given him a memorandum saying they will not vote if there is no development work in the village.
Sharma denied any knowledge of the matter when asked over the phone.
“Now that elections are due, politicians are asking for our votes. They assure us that they will help. But no one helped us in five years. We don’t want to vote for them,” said Mohal Lal Kevat, a resident.
Goyal filed a case in the high court five years back and got a stay on any activity in the village. The high court sent the matter to the concerned court and it is now pending in the district and sessions court in Kota.
Goyal said he has sought return of the encroached land. “We have no objection to the 24 bigha land my father had given to the village,” he said. “We will abide by that commitment. I am only demanding that the land on which they have encroached be returned to me and the land that was given by my father be distributed systematically.”
Kota collector Gaurav Goyal said a SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation) team had visited the village and assured the villagers that they would not be removed from the land. After the assurance, he said, the villagers had agreed to cast their votes.