Two Jind villages abstain from voting

Hisar, October 30

Residents of Chabri and Bhidtana villages in Jind district abstained from voting in the elections to panchayati raj institutions in support of their demand for road connectivity to the national highway that passes by their villages.

Peaceful, says DC

Jind DC Manoj Kumar stated that the law and order situation was under control in the district and no untoward incident was reported.

The villagers decided to boycott the polling and announced to impose a fine of Rs 5 lakh on anyone who cast his vote, besides socially boycotting such persons. Polling parties reached the village this morning, but no voter turned up at the polling booth.

Later, the Jind SDM went to the village to persuade the voters but the villagers refused to participate in polling. Around 25 villages have been protesting for around two months near Chabri village seeking exit and entry points on the Greenfield Express Highway 352-A.

Jind DC Manoj Kumar said the law and order situation was under control in the district and no untoward incident was reported.

The newly constructed National Highway 352-A, a stretch of around 70 km between Jind and Sonepat districts, passes by their villages. Farmers alleged that despite their fields being situated on both sides of the highway, the authorities didn’t give them the way to cross the road to reach their fields.

Zile Singh, a member of the village panchayat, said no villager went to the polling booth to cast his/her vote as the villagers had given the boycott call. Meanwhile, 69.1% polling was recorded in Jind district.

The polling for the 42 zila parishad seats and 144 block samiti seats passed off peacefully in 312 villages of Bhiwani district with no report of any untoward incident in the district.

Bhiwani district recorded 69.5% polling. Out of 6,59,450 voters, 4,58,401 exercised their franchise to elect their representatives in the zila parishad and block samiti elections.