Purulia's Ismaldi village calls for vote boycott over long pending demands, villagers says will not vote till demands are fulfilled

Villagers of Ismaldi, in Purulia district of West Bengal have decided to boycott upcoming state assembly poll following the unfulfillment of long pending demands such as water crisis, dilapidated roads, no polling booth, and the poor state of rural development.

Ismaldi comes under Lagda gram panchayat of Purulia No. 1 block under Balrampur assembly constituency.

This village is a residence for around 100 families belonging to the minority community.

To cast their vote these villagers had to walk for three kilometers to reach the nearest polling station Lagda Primary School.

Along with water shortage throughout the year and bad condition of roads villagers complained that they have hardly received various govt schemes being promised to them.

Noor Mohammad Ansari said, "none from this village has ever received an old-age pension, we do not have a proper house to stay, we face water shortage throughout the year, we do not have a road for transportation whom shall we say all these? Nobody came here to listen to us hence what's the point of voting? Altogether we have decided to boycott vote till our demands are fulfilled."

"There are few reasons behind vote boycott. We have not received Bangla Awaas Yojana, the road condition from Lagda to Ismaldi is pathetic and hence we demand a concrete road. We also face a water crisis and demand a pond for our village," said another villager.

The 6,259 km westernmost district of West Bengal Purulia faces water shortage in several areas as 50 percent of the water runoff due to the undulated topography.

As per data available from the provisional reports of Census India, the population of Purulia in 2011 is 121,067.

The total no. of slums in Purulia city is 9,205 in which population of 50,071 resides which is around 41.36 pc of the total population of Purulia city.

The district's literacy rate is 64.48 percent.

The first phase of polling will be held in five districts and 30 assembly seats that include Purulia, West Midnapore Part I, Bankura Part I, East Midnapore Part I, and Jhargram.

Elections to the 294-member assembly will be held from March 27 to April 29. Results will be declared on May 2.

( With inputs from ANI )