Dima Hasao’s remote Jinam booths test poll staff’s grit

Guwahati: In Assam’s hill district of Dima Hasao, reaching the four polling booths in the remote Jinam Valley along the Assam-Manipur border remains a gruelling challenge for election officials carrying EVMs and polling materials. Booth level officers (BLOs) said the road beyond Mahur, about 30km from the district headquarters in Haflong, is kutcha and turns non-motorable during the rains. With pre-monsoon showers already beginning, they fear the route may soon become inaccessible.

N Peise LP School polling booth has just 96 voters (49 male and 47 female), an increase of one since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while Khangnam-III LP School polling booth has 183 electors (86 male and 97 female) and the Khangnam LP School polling booth has 242 electors (119 male and 123 female). The electoral roll of Khangnam-III LP School polling booth witnessed a decrease of 57 electors and the roll of Khangnam LP School polling booth recorded a decrease of 16 electors during the Special Revision in the state.




Haideudimbe Jeme, the BLO of the Khangnam-III LP School polling station, told TOI that the condition of the road becomes pathetic and non-accessible during the rainy season as it is a kutcha road through the hilly terrain. “In 2024 LS polls, the polling official teams were stuck near Mahur due to heavy rains as their vehicle was stuck in mud and could not proceed. The teams spent the whole night there and then they trekked through the rain-lashed hilly terrains for six-to-seven hours and without food for more than 24 hours,” he added.

He added that if it does not rain from at least two-three days prior to the polling, then the polling official teams will find it easy to travel to the polling stations. “Otherwise, it becomes difficult as the kutcha roads become muddy and slippery to drive or walk,” he added.

Haideudimbe further said mobile networks are also poor in the region. He added that the nearest health centre is at Mahur, which is about 25 km from the polling booth.

Meanwhile, Haichung Jeme, the BLO of the N Peise LP School, told TOI that the polling booth was constituted in 2024 Lok Sabha polls as the voters under this booth had to face a lot of difficulties to travel to Khangnam-III LP School to cast their votes in elections earlier.

“There are two routes to come to the polling station – one is from Haflong to the polling station via Mahur and Gopikot and the other is via Silchar. The road is quite good via Silchar but it takes almost a day from Haflong to travel,” he added. The voters here in the Jinam valley belong to the Zeme tribe, a major Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group.

The district has over 80 P-2 polling booths, of which the above mentioned polling booths are remotest besides a few more. P-2 polling booths are remote booths, where polling personnel have to depart two days before the polling day as polling teams have to travel through non-motorable and inaccessible stretches.

A senior officer on condition of anonymity said, “This is the beauty of democracy. Efforts are put in to reach out to everyone in every nook and corner. Not a single voter is left out of this democratic process.”