BALLARI: Residents of Haraginadhoni village boycotted the bypolls to Ballari Lok Sabha segment on Saturday over lack of drinking water facility at the village. The village is home to 2,144 registered voters.
They further warned that they will not participate in any electoral process in the future until their demand for water is met. The residents refused to vote in spite of Ballari Deputy Commissioner Dr Ram Prasath Manohar’s intervention.
When TNIE visited the village, which is home to 850 houses, the three polling booths wore a deserted look with only the election staff sitting inside. “No resident has come to vote since morning. We tried to convince them, but they are firm in their decision,” Vijay Kumar, a polling officer, told TNIE.
“We want water at any cost. We have been demanding water since the days of Allam Veerabhadrappa (who was an MLA here in the early 1990s). We have submitted memoranda to every official and every neta. They just want our votes and nothing else,” said Shivarama Reddy, a resident. Another resident Siddanagouda said, “No effort has been made to provide us water. All the wells and borewells are dry.”
Another resident H Doddanagouda said that the Ballari DC visited the village and requested them to participate in the election. “He promised us that he will personally come here and hear our grievances and do the needful. But we have had enough. Let the government fulfil our demands ... then we will come out and vote. It is not just this election. We will boycott all other future elections too,” he said.
The Ballari ZP has been supplying water in two tankers each day from the high-level canal and two tractors have been stationed there permanently. According to the villagers, these vehicles make two trips each day, but it is not sufficient to meet the requirement of the village with a population of about 3,500. Sometimes, when there is no water, the villagers have to travel a distance of 6 km to fetch water.
According to the residents, political parties, which are aware of the water problem, did not even appoint polling agents to the village.
Villagers of Haragina-dhoni have threatened to boycott the byelection for not providing them with adequate drinking water.Haraginadhoni has 800 houses and 2,100 voters. and it is just stone’s throw away from Ballari.All the borewells here have dried up. Though the village is close to Pampasagar Lake, water crisis is an order of the day here. This village has a boat in its name. But ironically, it seems to be lost in the dry land.Water is being supplied to the village by tankers and fight for water among women is common. “Though the villagers have been demanding water since last one decade, nothing much has been done,” said Pampapathi, a villager from Belagal. According to the villagers, Suresh, a boy from the village, was washed away in a canal while trying to fetch water. Deputy Commissioner Ram Prasath Manohar and SP Arun Rangarajan will visit the spot to pacify them.