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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | From village cut off for 7 years, voters chorus ‘NOTA’ -Esha Roy

From village cut off for 7 years, voters chorus ‘NOTA’ -Esha Roy

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published Published on Apr 18, 2016   modified Modified on Apr 18, 2016
-The Indian Express

The villagers’ ire is rooted in being isolated from the rest of the district for seven years.

Tindharay: Fifty kilometres from Darjeeling town, roads snaking through tea-laden hills lead to Tindharay. It’s a nondescript village like many in the Darjeeling hills. But Sunday, as North Bengal voted, Tindharay did not do so — or at least not for any political party.

The single polling booth in the village, located in a tiny school with yellow and pink walls, polled 430 votes out of its 821 registered voters — just over 50 per cent. “And most of us had decided our votes would be for NOTA (none of the above),” said a polling agent inside the booth.

The villagers’ ire is rooted in being isolated from the rest of the district for seven years. A landslide had hit the fringes of the village, bringing down a portion of the road and affecting Tindharay and adjoining villages. The road still ends abruptly where the hill had washed down to the depths of the valley. Several days before Darjeeling went to polls, the frustrated village had announced “No road, no vote”.

“But yesterday, we decided we would vote. We would vote to register our protest under NOTA,’’said the polling agent.

“I arrived from Sikkim just yesterday. And I came only to vote NOTA,” said Lal Bahadur Chhetri, 24, who works at Manipal University as a network engineer. “The reason we decided to vote eventually is that we want to exercise our right… It’s the daily wagers who still live in our village who are really facing a problem. Since there is no road, buses and trucks no longer ply.”

Only small vans squeeze on to the edge of the dismembered cliff and head to Siliguri. “It used to cost a daily wager Rs 20 to get to Siliguri but that now costs him Rs 40. Which is a lot for him,” said Chhetri.

Yogesh Rai, 40, did not vote. A driver by profession, he does not care whether the government takes cognisance of his protest. “The landslide took away the highway, practically isolating us. The government has done nothing about it,” he said. “Parties only surface ahead of elections. Why should we give them any votes?”

Rai said prices of essentials have gone up. “If you get chicken in Siliguri at Rs 50 a kg, it will be sold here at Rs 200 because of the reluctance of traders to bring any goods here.”

It isn’t just Tindharay. A small strip of road leads to Ghaiyabari village 5 km away, the location of the landslide. “This isn’t a government road. It’s actually part of a tea estate that used to be here. But now this has become the main road,” said Kishan Tamang, 49, the Trinamool polling agent for Paklajora. “Our main link, NH-55, has been cut off for years after the landslide.”

Two desks stand side by side, one manned for the Trinamool Congress by Kishan Tamang and the other for the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha by Bina Tamang, 39. There is jovial banter between the two. “Yes, we represent different parties but the fact is that neither of those has done anything for us so far,” said Bina. “Trucks and buses don’t pass this area any longer, tourists have stopped coming, hotels have shut down. Our children find it difficult to go to school. Don’t even ask about how we take someone to hospital if there is an emergency. It’s as if we are no longer on Darjeeling’s map.”

The village has 1,500 homes.

“We are taxpayers. Where is the road that was supposed to be built with our money? Whoever wins the elections, we will make sure they build us our road,” Bina said.

“If not, you come back before the next election,” she added. “You will find me standing here at the same spot. Then ask me what we are going to do.”

The Indian Express, 18 April, 2016, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/west-bengal-polls-tindharay-votes-nota-2758147/


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