BK Singh
Residents of several villages in Bara area of the district have vowed not to vote in Allahabad parliamentary constituency this time.
They are on warpath against local pradhans, politicians and Block Development Officer. According to them these people are responsible for the chaos in our lives.
Pools of water having got converted into mud and mire in this summer heat has made their lives miserable. This was not recent but exists since more than two decades.
School children, women, elderly and others have to wade through water, mud and mire all through the year.
In some villages this situation exists since the past ten years while in other areas for the past more than two decades.
Imagine our plight? When this was the condition in this scorching heat what it becomes during the rainy season, lamented an elderly man.
Kamlesh Tripathi of Atarsuiya village including Raj Kumar, Lal Chand Vishwakarma and dozens of others, say none from the village would vote in any election as long as our long standing grievances were not addressed.
Rajaram, Mahesh, Saligram, Raju Kesarwani, Ram Naresh, Shankar Lal of Jari recall how difficulties faced by people in solemnising marriages.
Children are forced to encounter difficult path daily, say residents of Bagholva village.
All this started after the construction of National Highway 30 when the road level became high but no body at that time thought about the nightmare it would cause to nearly ten thousand residents living in this area.
Local BJP MLA Vachaspati has never visited any of these villages.
Former MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the BJP, was given a warm welcome when she came asking for votes before the last election. Womenfolk of several villages narrated their tale of woes to her but we continue to live in this hell, said a woman.
A couple of days ago women children fed up with the apathy of the authorities concerned and those in power took out a march with placards expressing their angst.