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Where residents are unwilling to vote

Staff Reporter

For various reasons, people of two panchayats have not enrolled themselves as voters

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

LEFT OUT: This area, a few metres away from Berhampur municipal limits, lacks civic amenities.

BERHAMPUR: Residents of newly developed areas in and around the city have least interest in the coming panchayat elections though they are part of the panchayats. The areas fall under Nimakhandi panchayat of Kukudakhandi block and Sataputuni panchayat of Rangeilunda block.

Most of them have not enrolled themselves in the voter list of panchayats, says Ajit Sahu, a resident of Jyoti Nagar, a newly developed area under Nimakhandi panchayat.

A dilemma

The condition of residents of Harsha Vihar is astonishing. According to Arjun Swain, a resident of the locality, though they are paying tax to the Berhampur Municipality their locality has not been mention in any ward of the municipality. They are not willing to enrol themselves in the voter list of Kukudakhandi block.

"How can we be under two local bodies, paying taxes to one and voting for the other?" he questions. Sanjib Kumar Patnaik, president of Adarsh Yuvak Sangh of Braja Nagar, just a few metres from the municipal limits, says that the residents feel as if they are in no man's land.

"We have been running from Kukudakhandi block office to the Berhampur Municipality. But no one has solved our civic problems."

This area falls under Nimakhandi panchayat under Kukudakhandi block and their polling booth is at Lochapada village.

Mr. Sahu says that the residents of the area are not interested to go and vote for the panchyat polls at the village booth as most of the families have resettled here.

Brundaban Khatei, Congress candidate for Zilla Parishad from Kukudakhandi block, also feels that it is quite hard to persuade voters in urban pockets adjacent to the city to come and vote for the panchayat polls.

"They are mentally attached to the city rather than the panchayats," he says.

Mr. Swain feels it is high time the limits were redrawn as the city has grown manifold.

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