Angul: Believe it or not. People of Sikhyakpada village in this district have not been able to exercise their franchise in panchayat and civic body polls for the last 23 years.
They, however, could vote in Chhendipada Assembly elections and Sambalpur Lok Sabha polls.
The inhabitants of this village, situated on the outskirts of Angul town, attribute this strange situation to erroneous delimitation of their area by the officials concerned. While a part of the village comes under Angul municipality, the remaining area is under Banarpal block.
Due to the official mistake the villagers neither belong to Banarpal block nor can claim to be part of Angul municipality.
The wrong delimitation of their area has not only deprived them of their voting rights but also has affected the implementation of developmental programmes. Many residents do not have ration cards while the village lacks proper road connectivity.
The locals have taken up these issues with the administration several times, but to no avail.
According to a report, the villagers were earlier voting for the civic body polls. However, their fate took a turn after the state government conducted a delimitation exercise of the civic body (then a notified area council) in 1994.
The officials engaged in the delimitation exercise committed an error by including a part of the village in the civic body and another part in Banarpal block.
The locals were expecting to be included under Banarpal block as their village was under Ranigoda jungle mouza which was under the jurisdiction of Banarpal tehsil.
However, a major part of the village was left out during the delimitation exercise and was neither included in the block nor in the civic body jurisdiction. The block administration did not show any interest to include the area under its jurisdiction, the villagers claimed.
The Angul NAC was soon upgraded to a municipality June 11, 2008. The district administration then on the basis of population decided to include the village in the municipality limits. However, that never took shape even as nine years have passed.
The villagers filed a petition in the Orissa High Court September 22, 1997. The court passed an order directing the district election officer to file a report on it through the State Election Commission.
The district election officer in his report supported the merger of the village with Angul NAC as the sub-clause-3 of the Orissa State panchayat Act-1964 states that one part of a revenue village cannot remain in a panchayat and the other part in a civic body. However, the suggestion was never implemented.
Later, the municipality conducted a survey and passed a resolution in its council meeting supporting the merger of the village with the civic body. A report supporting the merger was sent to the urban development department for approval July 15, 2015. However, the village is yet to be included in the municipality. PNN