Bargarh: Casting votes in the general elections proved costly for the members of two families as they were ostracised by the villagers and debarred from using water at Rasali village under Bhatli Assembly segment in this district, a report said.
The families of Arakhita Sahu and Siba Budhia were ostracised after they refused to abide by the poll boycott call of the village committee and exercised their franchise at the Government High School in Tarakana, about 3km from their village.
The matter came to light after Bikash and Sanjiv met Collector, Indramani Tripathy, at Bargarh and lodged a complaint.
They alleged that the administration is yet to take any action even though the incident happened more than a month ago. The collector assured them of immediate action while receiving their complaint.
Sources said the villagers took offence to the voting by the two families and convened a meeting April 18 where they had declared the social boycott of the members of the two families. The curbs included no use of water and fire by them in the village.
The village committee’s action is said to be a fallout of the villagers’ demand for a separate polling booth in their village as the nearest one is in Tarakana village, 3 km from Rasali which has 290 voters.
The villagers, particularly elderly ones, had alleged that it was difficult for them to travel such a long distance in the hot summer and cast their votes in Tarakana. So, they decided to boycott the poll after all their pleas with the block development officer and the district administration went unheard.
Though the villagers were given voter slips before the election, the whole village boycotted the poll while the members of the two families went to Tarakana and exercised their franchise.