Issue galore in Delhi’s villages, residents hope local candidates will solve them
MCD election 2017: Villagers said there were certain issues that they wanted the candidates in general and civic bodies in particular to address.
Not expecting much from the administration to look into their civic demands, voters from some of Delhi’s villages on Sunday decided cast their votes only for candidates from their own communities in the municipal elections.
“I have been living in Model Town since the time it was a jungle. Big buildings have come up now and in the next few years, even our villages will be commercialised. For us, the candidate matters. Someone who is local and from the community is preferred. Candidates from the three main parties are from the same community,” said Nafe Singh Dabas, a retired principal from Model Town.
In Najafgarh, the owners of farm lands voted based on their loyalty towards a party or a candidate.
“Every family here comes out to vote based on their closeness to a particular candidate. For example, one of the elders in my family is a friend of a candidate who is contesting from here. So, everyone in my family will vote for him,” said Anil Kumar, 35, a resident of Najafgarh.
Villagers said there were certain issues that they wanted the candidates in general and civic bodies in particular to address. In Ghoga village of Alipur, for example, lack of a primary healthcare center is an issue that makes residents travel at least 10km when they are sick.
“There is no dispensary for a village with a population of 6,000. We have requested the MP, MLA and ministers several times and hope we get a small healthcare facility after this election,” said Rameshwar, a resident of Ghoga.
In the 2012 municipal elections, the villagers of Ladpur and Sannoth in outer Delhi’s Kanjhawla had boycotted the polls demanding chakbandi (consolidation of land). The problem was later resolved by the Delhi government. Queued up in front of polling booths on Sunday, the villagers threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, if they didn’t get Metro connectivity.
Residents of some other villages complained about absence of roads.
“Our lives won’t change after voting. No one listens to our plight anyway,” said a resident. She, along with her husband and three children, work at a field in Dharampura, Najafgarh.
She said that it is difficult to transport crops from the field up to local markets due to bad condition of roads and streets in the area.
“I have been living in Najafgarh for ten years. But there has been no development in the locality. What should we vote for in the MCD polls? Roads are broken. There is no proper road to even go to my house,” she said.