MYSURU: Tribals living on the fringes of forests in Mysuru district voted in large numbers in the Gram Panchayat elections on Tuesday with the hope of seeing some development in their hamlets. Villages just outside the forest in HD Kote and Hunsur taluks have large populations of tribals, and have been neglected for long. The residents here have no proper drinking water, road or transport facilities.
These sleepy hamlets have woken up to the need for better infrastructure and the educated among the tribal communities are contesting the election, promising development. Voters from these villages were at the polling booth even before they opened at 7 am. Around noon, a polling booth at Ummathur had a long queue of nearly 150 voters waiting to exercise their franchise.
Some of the voters said that electing an efficient candidate will help them pressurise the government to implement the Forest Rights Act and to find a solution to the problem faced by tribals, who were displaced during rehabilitation, in getting title deeds.
Several tribals had walked nearly 7-8 km to reach the polling booth at Nagapura Ashrama School. Kenche Gowda, Panchayat Development Officer of Ummathur, said that the response to the election in the region was good since morning.
"People from Bunde Besta, Hakki-Pikki and other nomadic communities, residing in Pakshirajapura, Bunde Bestara Colony and other hamlets, are enthusiastically participating in the elections," he said, even as the polling was on.