JAJPUR: Desa Pradhan is excited about exercising his voting rights for the first time. But this new voter of Nagada is chuffed that elders of his village won’t have to trek an arduous 11 km to do the same anymore, thanks to the Jajpur administration for setting up a polling booth in the nondescript village.
Home to the Juang community, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), Nagada comprises three hamlets - Upar, Majhi and Tala Nagada. Six years back, malnutrition-induced deaths among children screamed its utter backwardness which included absence of basic amenities as well as a polling station.
It would now be a thing of the past. The sense of election euphoria, obviously, is palpable as the voting station has been set up at Nagada Project Primary School.
In the past, voters of the village had to undertake an arduous journey through hilly terrains and dense forest to the Deogaon primary school. This also meant that voter turnout from the village was very low as elderly people could not undertake the 11 km trek to exercise their franchise. “Things are different now. New voters like me will no more have to face any such problem. I am quite excited to vote for the first time and that too in our very own polling booth,” Desa added.
Ecstasy of a first for voters of Nagada
Besides, due to improvement in road connectivity, the village is witnessing hectic electioneering. In previous elections, there was hardly any campaigning by candidates in the hilltop village which was inaccessible by road. But after a motorable road came up, candidates are frequenting Nagada with the promise of carrying out several development works in lieu of votes.
Laxmi Pradhan, an elderly woman, said she had never seen candidates canvassing for votes in her village. “Now many candidates contesting in the polls are making a beeline for our village. They are promising to develop our village if we elect them,” she said.
Nagada comes under Chingudipal gram panchayat. Outgoing sarpanch Nilendra Pradhan said the village has around 600 Juang tribals of whom 315 are voters.
“Earlier, the polling percentage in Nagada was poor due to the long distance of the polling booth from the village. We expect that the voter turnout in the tribal village will go up this time as a polling booth has been set up in the middle of Nagada,” he added. Nagada will go to polls on February 22.