ROURKELA: As many as 60 rural voters of Kantamunda village under Sol gram panchayat in Gurundia block on Sunday boycotted polling. Reason: Their polling booth was too far for them to travel.
Sexagenarian villager Daud Kujur said he was too weak to travel to the booth at Tamperkela gram panchayat to cast his vote.
The Kantamunda village has a population of 570 persons. Except the 60 voters, the remaining were enrolled at the nearby polling booths.
The remote village, divided by hills and forest patches, is deprived of road communication and public transport system is virtually missing. Only a bus plies till the Sol gram panchayat headquarters.
Villagers said it is next to impossible for them to go to Tamperkela and return on the same day.
Gurundia BDO Ratanlal Munda said during preparation of the electoral rolls for the panchayat election, the affected villagers were wrongly attached to a distant booth. He clarified that the same voters would not face such problem during the general election as their names in the electoral list for general election are attached to the nearest polling booth.
Bonai Sub-Collector D Prasant Reddy said the affected villagers had brought it to the notice of the administration late.
He said the administration would rectify the error after the local body elections. He said it appeared the problem cropped up during demarcation of wards for the panchayat polls.