Kundaim villagers boycott by-poll
NT News Service Ponda, Oct 31 The villagers of Kundaim created history today by boycotting the Lok Sabha by-election. Earlier the same villagers had forced all panchayat members to resign once they came to know they were involved in a plots distribution scam. Perhaps this is for the first time that a Goan village having a voting population of 2,806 completely boycotted elections much to the dismay of the authorities who were surprised at the togetherness shown by the villagers. Their reason for boycotting the election is nobody had helped the them when clashes took place between them and Tapobhomi members and four innocent villagers were arrested by the police. The three polling stations at Manaswadda, Darazwadda and Waddem-Kundaim wore a deserted look with villagers abstaining from exercising their franchise. Though the deputy superintendent of police, Mr Vaman Tari, police inspector, Mr Manjunath Desai, the deputy collector and the assistant returning officer, Mr Sanjeev Desai tried to counsel the villagers, their efforts proved futile. They even promised to provide police protection. The mamlatdar, Mr Promod Bhat on instructions of the deputy collector, made a general announcement on the hand mike - urging the villagers to vote but this also failed to yield any result. Interestingly, a voter who was residing away from Kundaim cast his vote at booth number 1 unaware of the stand of the villagers. However later, he apologised for it and expressed his support to them. The staff posted on election duty were also a dejected lot. On condition of anonymity a presiding officer said, It is disgusting to sit idle the whole day. People are not coming to vote. And nobody could force them. Though it was an unique experience to us all, it was disappointing too. A lady officer, appreciating the peoples unity in the village, said, This shows that they are hurt. Interestingly, they have set a new trend. Though the villagers decided a fortnight ago to abstain from voting, none of the contestants visited them, they lamented. http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=110113 Sanny de Quepem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
