ONGOLE: Nearly 9,825 residents displaced by the Pula Subbaiah Veligonda Reservoir Project will be unable to vote in the upcoming local body elections in Markapuram district due to pending administrative and technical procedures linked to their rehabilitation.
Although elections will be held in most parts of the district, voters from several villages submerged by the reservoir have lost their voting rights as their names have not yet been incorporated into electoral rolls of the rehabilitation colonies where they were resettled.
Official sources said seven affected villages lost voting rights after the original gram panchayats of Gottipadiya, Kalanuthala, Gundamcherla and Sunkesula ceased to exist following submergence. Gottipadiya and Akkacheruvu Thanda formed one panchayat, Chintalamudipi was under Kalanuthala panchayat, and Katamaraju Thanda was part of Gundamcherla panchayat.
Authorities have announced that elections will be conducted in 402 of the district’s 406 gram panchayats. Polls will not be held in the four submerged panchayats and the corresponding MPTC constituency.
Residents of Lakshmipuram, Krishnanagar, Sairamnagar and Ramalingeswarapuram, who were relocated after their villages were submerged, will also be unable to vote despite elections being held in their parent panchayats.
The issue has renewed concerns among project oustees over their lack of electoral representation.
