People of five gram panchayats of the Deogarh district are very much determined not to cast their vote if the mobile network of their locality is not improved.
Mobile is not a luxury now, rather it is a necessity. And Covid has enhanced its utility further. Particularly, students are more dependent on it to take lessons when study is imparted online.
The residents of these Gram Panchayats of Tileibani block of the district are deprived of mobile service as there is network problem. Not a single company is able to provide the network service satisfactorily.
In protest, they have decided to boycott the panchayat elections. To ventilate their anger, they did not allow a single person to file nomination for the post of Ward Member, Sarapanch and Zilla Parishad Member. They also held dharna in front of the GP offices and Block headquarters at Tileibani to ensure that not a single person can file nomination.
In order to break the ice, Deogarh Collector SM Samal sent a team of senior officials of the district to the dharna spot at Jharagogua. They tried to convince the villagers, but to no effect. They informed the villagers that the district administration has taken all initiatives for installation of mobile towers in the non-accessible Panchayats. The work will also start very soon. However, the villagers were not prepared to believe them and remained firm on their decision for boycotting vote.
PD DRDA of the district Lucas Pradhan invited their representatives to come to the district headquarters town and practically see that a process has begun by the administration to instal mobile towers. But the agitators declined.
The result being the election process for the Panchayat and Zilla Parishad is yet to begin in the district. One women candidate took a nomination form from the authority to file for Sarapanch. But amid protest, she couldn't do it and returned the papers. Friday was the last day for filing nomination papers.
When contacted, Collector Samal said: “We hope that people will change their decision on the last day and facilitate the election process. Administration is also approaching them accordingly to end the stalemate as we are sincere to their demand.”