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Entire village boycotts polling in Kaithal distt

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Press Trust of India Khanpur village (Kaithal)

All the 1,350 voters in this village falling in Kaithal district forming part of Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency today boycotted the polling in protest of their village being included in Guhla assembly constituency following delimitation having been excluded from Kaithal assembly  constituency.

The villagers now have to travel a distance of 28 kms to Guhla for various works, including banking and business, as against the earlier four kms the residents travelled to Kaithal, Sarpanch Gian Chand of the village located on the Kaithal-Cheeka-Patiala  road, told a visiting PTI correspondent.  

Chand said that for ages the villagers have been going to Kaithal for meeting traders in the Grain Market, doing bank related works and for other activities, but now with the village being in Guhla the residents are not ready to travel 28 kms resulting in lot of inconvenience.

The village decided recently to boycott all the elections till the time the village was not included back in the Kaithal assembly constituency, the Sarpanch said adding that not a single voter has turned up at the sole polling booth set up for 1,350 voters of the  village.  

The local Deputy Commissioner, Sub Divisional Magistrate  And poll officials also visited the village this morning to persuade the residents to vote, but the villagers have remained adamant not to  vote till their demand is met. 

A former Sarpanch Dharampal said that they had met the sitting MP from Kurukshetra Navin Jindal and Kaithal MLA Shamsher Singh Surjewala, but the officials have done nothing to include the  village back in Kaithal assembly constituency.

 

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First Published: May 07 2009 | 12:18 PM IST

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