By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 23 Jan: Despite the State Election Commission is urging people to cast their vote in the ongoing municipal elections, certain areas have witnessed a boycott of the polls. One such case is from the Kesarwala area (Maldevta area) of Dehradun Municipal Corporation, where there are about 400 voters, but only a handful votes were cast by 4 pm. In fact, only one vote was cast here by noon.
Residents of Kesar Wala area have boycotted the election. According to local residents, the people of Kesarwala are very angry over the inclusion of their rural area under the Municipal limits and that ire has led to their decision to boycott voting.
The locals also shared that Kesarwala was added to the Dehradun Municipal Corporation without the consent of the local people. They also complain that since its inclusion under the territorial jurisdiction of Dehradun Municipal Corporation, Kesarwala has has not received any additional facilities. There has been a long-standing demand for installation of street lights in the area, but no one from the Municipal Corporation has addressed this issue so far.
The locals feel that Kesarwala is a rural area and that there was absolutely no need for this area to be included in the Municipal Corporation. However, this is not the only issue that has troubled the voters in Kesarwala. There is a road passing from Kesarwala which falls under administrative control of Cantonment and has not been repaired since long. In the last Parliamentary elections and even during the campaigning for the current municipal elections , leaders of both Congress and the BJP had promised that this road would be repaired by constructing RCC road here. But this promise remained unfulfilled. Besides this, there is a nullah passing through the middle of Kesarwala which is never cleaned and smells foul despite continuous appeals by the local residents to get it cleaned. It remains neglected since long, adding to the anger of the local people. As a result, the residents decided that boycotting the municipal elections was the best decision. According to the locals, those who cast their votes on Thursday are those who now live outside the area and came only to cast their vote.
