Deogarh: People have shown a new of way of venting their anger as a means of protest against lack of development.
This time, panchayat elections in five panchayats of Deogarh district will not be held as no aspirants have filed their nominations for posts of sarpanch, samiti members and zilla parishad members.
According to reports, locals are sore over absence of mobile towers in Paraposi, Gandam, Jharagogua, Dimirikuda and Jharmunda panchayats under Tileibani block.
Over years, they have been suffering in the communication front as the areas lack mobile network. Angry locals of these five panchayats had announced their decision to boycott polls through public address systems. They had urged people not to file nominations.
Gauging the mood of the voters, those who had been aspiring to contest polls this time refrained from filing their nominations. They feared that they would suffer the consequence of the public ire.
PD Lucas Pradhan, Tileibani BDO Krushnachandra Dalapati and Deogarh tehsildar had visited the five panchayats and tried to convince the people to participate in the elections, but failed to prevail upon the angry locals.
The officials also urged people to cooperate in the election process. They also assured the locals that effort is already on to set up mobile towers in these areas while the district administration has issued NOC for the purpose.
However, the angry villagers refused to budge from their stand. Panchayat executive officer Laba Kisha said that nobody has filed nomination owing to the adamant stand of the locals.
PNN
