The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : Nellie villagers vow to boycott polls

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Monday, Apr 26, 2004

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National - Elections 2004

Nellie villagers vow to boycott polls

A farmer looks at the paddy damaged by floodwater. - Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar.

Sushanta Talukdar

Nellie

Md. Mafizuddin of Basundhari village in Nagaon district looks helplessly at his flood-damaged crop and gives vent to his ire. His dreams of a bumper harvest lie submerged under the surging waters of the Kopili and Killing rivers.

"Every time the election comes, the candidates and their agents come to our village and promise to construct a sluice gate to solve this problem of the flood waters of Kopili and Killing rivers damaging the crop. But they forget their promises soon after the elections are over. So we have decided not to vote this time," says Mafizuddin.

Some 21 years after the Nellie massacre of 1800 immigrant settlers in 1983 during the peak of the anti-foreigners movement in Assam, residents of 18 villages of Nellie in Nagaon district are coming to grips with a man-made disaster.

Flash floods in the Kopili and Killing rivers last week destroyed their standing crop spread over an area of more than 20,000 bighas. This could have been prevented if their elected representatives had bothered to construct a sluice gate across a narrow strip at the confluence of the two rivers, the farmers say.

Angry residents of 12 of these 18 villages have decided to boycott today's poll to the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in protest against the political parties not honouring their promise. The villagers have also clamped a ban on the entry of workers of the political parties and their candidates for electioneering. There are about 5,000 Muslim voters in these villages.

The floodwaters have also submerged a major part of the approach road from the national highway leading to the villages of Basundhari, Matiparbat, Bhogduabil, Habi, Santipur and other villages snapping surface communications.

Sultan Ahmed says that former Chief Ministers Hiteswar Saikia and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had promised to take up construction of the sluice gate, but did not bother to implement it. "The sitting MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not cared to visit our villages during his entire tenure. Be it the Congress, the AGP or the BJP, they are all the same. They need us only at the time of elections; they don't care enough to solve our problems. Now that the crop has been damaged we do not know how we will feed our families. This is the only crop we can grow every year in this area," he says.

Mr. Ahmed says he had taken a loan of Rs. 15,000 from a bank to grow the crop on his 20 bighas of paddy fields. "I don't know how I will repay the loan now," he adds.

The villagers have also vowed not to hire their country boats to the election department to ferry the polling teams to the polling centres.

The Nellie villagers form part of the 3.5 lakh Muslim voters of the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency who play a crucial role in the elections.

The decision of the villagers to abstain from voting is clearly a message to the political parties that they will not allow themselves to be used as a vote bank any longer.

"If political parties are really serious about their promises then they must first show results. We will take part in elections only after seeing positive action by the parties to solve the problem. They will not be able to get away with mere assurances," says Mafizuddin.

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