Barwani (Madhya Pradesh): Fed up with administrative and public representatives’ apathy, villagers from Kharya Bhadal in Barwani district put up a sign board that said that no political leader, either from the BJP or Congress, is allowed to move inside the village.
They even put up posters of MLAs, MPs and Rajya Sabha MPs who had gone ‘missing’.
Villagers holding there placards | FP Photo
The village, which has a total number of voters of around 500, falls under Semlet gram panchayat in Pati development block under Barwani assembly constituency, which is led by none other than the state animal husbandry minister Premsingh Patel.
Villagers claimed that despite the area represented by the cabinet minister, they are still deprived of basic facilities, and now they have no option but to boycott the upcoming assembly polls.
.jpg)
We won’t allow any political leaders to move inside their village to seek their support.
FP Photo
Villagers Mull Poll Boycott
One of the villagers, Kishore, claimed that there is no road in the village, no water is available and the people have to wander several kilometres for water. Even public representatives and the administration are well aware of our problems, but they hardly bother to address them.
Ahead of elections, they came to our doorstep with big promises of addressing our demands, but once the elections were over, they vanished.
But now the villagers are not going to come under their guise and have made it clear that first work, then voting, and till the work is done, there will be no voting.
Notably, Lok Sabha MP Gajendra Singh Patel and Rajya Sabha MP Sumersinh Solanki are from the BJP and reside in Barwani assembly constituency itself. Despite this, the villagers are still forced to take steps like boycotting voting due to the need for basic facilities.
Taking a dig at the BJP leader, the Congress alleges that whether it is a matter of health, education, or basic facilities like roads and electricity, even today people in rural areas are yearning.
FP Photo
Rajan Mandloi, former municipality chairman from the Congress, said that Barwani used to be an educational hub once, but now that is not the case.
There is a shortage of teachers in schools, the standard of education has gone down and the government claims development, when even today, basic facilities have not reached the people.
Rahul Yadav, an activist of Narmada Bachao Andolan, said that we fight for comforts and facilities of villagers from our level, we do sit-in movements. We make the administration aware of every problem, but the result remains zero.
75 New Roads Built In Barwani Assembly
State cabinet minister and Barwani MLA Premsingh Patel said that earlier there was no road from Barwani to Indore, they used to travel through potholes, but the BJP government has laid a network of roads in the state.
He said that Pati is a difficult terrain, many roads have been made in hilly areas and many villages have been connected to the main road. Roads have been proposed at many places, approval has also been received, but due to the forest area, matters got entangled in permission front which will be resolved soon.
FP Photo
Regarding shortage of doctors, he said that the problem is not only in Pati, but in the entire state as doctors do not want to deliver in rural areas, but we will with find some solutions to it.
If we talk about Barwani constituency, we have made a maximum of 75 roads in 2021–22; if we talk about the Pradhan Mantri Sadak Yojana, 24 roads have been built.
The same 19 roads have been made by the public works department (PWD) and eight roads were built under the MP RDC, 17 roads were built through Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development Authority (MPRRDA), seven roads were built under other schemes.
So far, 75 roads have been built in the assembly area and all shortcomings will also be completed soon.
