Villagers boycott ZP polls

Scheduled Caste (SC) voters of Nangal Thathal village in Garhdiwala boycotted zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls to register their protest with the government for not reserving the village for SC candidates.

Scheduled Caste (SC) voters of Nangal Thathal village in Garhdiwala boycotted zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls to register their protest with the government for not reserving the village for SC candidates.

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On Sunday, no member of the community except one, cast his vote as a mark of protest.

Gurnam Singh, a teacher, who led the protest, said that the majority of the voters in the village belonged to the SC community and yet the seat was not reserved for the community. He said that of the 200-odd voters, nearly 90 per cent (179) were SCs.

"We have been struggling to get our village reserved for so many years, but to no avail. Now, even during the latest delimitation round, we approached the authorities. Now, we have decided to file a writ in the Punjab and Haryana high court," he added.