How contaminated water forced these two villages to boycott UP assembly polls; Read here

New Delhi: As voters of Uttar Pradesh are casting their votes in 55 constituencies spread across 9 districts, there are two villages in the state’s Shekhupur constituency that has decided to boycott the ongoing assembly polls as a show of dissatisfaction with the system. 

People of Narau and Milaal Nangla, two key villages in Shekhupur of the Badaun district, decided not to cast the ballot am boycott these elections owing to their frustration about the supply of contaminated drinking water. 

While talking to ANI, Badaun Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) BP Sharma said, "Even before this call by a few villagers, we spoke to them. The water comes from Ujhani Municipality here. The villagers say that the drinking water is also completely contaminated.” 

The villagers have said that they will not vote until the problem of contaminated water is resolved. They claimed that many people have died and many are suffering from serious diseases, PTI reported. 

Voters’ account 

Munna Lal, who lives in the Narau village, said, " The dirty water of the municipality is coming from the drain, due to which 1200 bighas of our land of the village have been wasted and the disease has spread in the whole village, many people of the village have become ill and many people have also died."  

"We told many leaders but no one listened to us, because of this, we have decided to boycott voting, no one in the village will go to vote, many people of the administration also came to convince the villagers. We have made up our mind till our problem is not resolved, till then we will not vote, no MLA has listened to our problem till date," he told ANI added.   

"The children of the village are suffering from jaundice and are compelled to drink dirty water. No one in the district is ready to get married in our village because the contaminated is contaminated. There are about 900 voters in our village and in the neighbouring village, there are around 300 voters," he stated.  

Speaking to ANI, Ganga Devi, who lives in the village, said, "The problem of our village is very big due to which two of my children have died. I have been requesting everyone for the last many years but no one is listening. This problem has remained in our village for 20 years. Many ministers also came but no one did anything." The second phase of polling for the state Assembly began today.  

What’s being done for the contaminated water? 

As per Sharma, a plan has been chalked out by the municipal council. We have also spoken to the villagers that we are making full efforts by engaging higher officials from the government level to solve this problem. 

"We are trying that the villagers should exercise their voting rights. Efforts are still going on. Although the voting has been started, not all the eligible people have voted yet. We are still trying for that," he said.  

(With ANI inputs)