ONGOLE: To register their protest against the ‘failure’ of the district administration in resolving their land-related issues, the villagers of Narisettyvaripalem in Kandukur mandal have decided to boycott the panchayat elections.
As per the unanimous decision of the villagers, all the sarpanch and ward member post contestants have withdrawn their nominations and submitted a memorandum to District Collector Pola Bhaskar. In the memorandum, the villagers of Narisettyvaripalem have stated that their village has around 1,000 acres of agriculture land and they were notified in five other village limits as the Narisettyvaripalem is not a revenue village.
In particular, agriculture lands in around 360 acres were notified in the revenue land records of Jillellamudi, Gadepallivari Kandrika village of Jarugumalli mandal and the agriculture lands in a few more acres were notified in Kondi Kandukur, Kovur, Jillellamudi and Kandukur village. It has become very difficult for the farmers of Narisettyvaripalem to go to these four villages, particularly Jarugumalli mandal headquarters, which is 25 km away from their village to get any land-related issue resolved.
“Despite submitting our pleas several times to the officials concerned and political leaders, no one has resolved our problem. To register our protest in a strong way, we chose to boycott the elections to be held on February 17,’’ said M Rangaiah, a villager of Narisettyvaripalem.
Call centre to receive plaints
The district administration has decided to give wide publicity to the call centre 0866 2466877 set up by the State Election Commission to receive complaints on model code of conduct violation. All the tahsildars and MPDOs were told to create awareness among the public on the call centre.
The complaints received at the call centre will be forwarded to the District Collector, SP, election observer and the nodal officers for speedy redressal.