Residents of Tehri village threaten to boycott panchayat polls over lack of road
Dehradun: Residents of Kyarda Naemchami village in Bhilangana block of Tehri Garhwal district submitted a memorandum to chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday, threatening to boycott the upcoming panchayat polls if the Panwali-Askanda road, which links their village to Kedarnath road, is not constructed.
The warning came on the same day the state election commissioner announced that polls in 12 districts in the state (excluding Haridwar) will be held in two phases on July 24 and 28, with counting on July 31.
Vishan Kandari, who was among those who handed over the memorandum declaring "No road, no vote" to the Ghansali tehsildar, said, "We are some 30 families in this revenue village, which have been seeking a road for the past 25 years since the state was formed.
The fate of the road continues to hang in the balance despite repeated assurances by multiple political parties who came to power. None of the families here have migrated and we all rely on the income from growing vegetables.
It's just a 1.5km stretch, about 6ft-wide, yet the project remains stuck in govt files year after year."
They said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, villagers had begun constructing the road themselves.
Later, they were assured by the district administration and Ghansali MLA Shakti Lal Shah that the road would be built. However, they are still waiting for connectivity.
"If the elections are held without the road being constructed and our genuine demand is not heard, we will hold sit-ins on the Char Dham yatra road," added another villager Sher Singh.
SDM of Ghansali, Sandeep Kumar, said, "The matter was brought to our notice through this memorandum. We have formed a two-member team comprising a tehsildar and a PWD official to visit the village and address the villagers' concerns."
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