No sanitation, no vote, cry villagers

GUWAHATI: Voters cannot be taken for a ride they say, and this election villagers of two panchayats, nearest and farthest from Guwahati, are determined to let their disapproval show in the EVMs.
Take the villages of Dongdang, Gumoria, Borgog and Thumuki for instance, which come under Dispur. Villagers here still do not have proper sanitation and pure drinking water facilities.Welfare schemes like Indira Awaas Yojna (IAY), have become misnomers since middlemen pocket the money, blocking benefits to those they were meant for.
"We are suffering because our representatives have cheated us. We have no drinking water and sanitation facility in the village," complained Urmila Rabha, president of the vigilance committee of Hohora Gaon Panchayat.
The vigilance committee found huge anomalies in the IAY housing scheme and submitted a list of 17 houses to the deputy commissioner in August 2010 which were allotted with favours. "There were names of beneficiaries who did not credit an accommodation under the scheme but were named in the list in Dongdang and Borgog. We appealed to the district administration to bring the corrupt officials to book. But no action has been taken since then," said Urmila.
"Many villagers still have to go to their backyards to answer nature's call," said Tiken Das, vice-president of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Committee, an NGO.
Das added that during summer, the area suffers from acute drinking water crisis. In the absence of drinking water, people are forced to rely on watertanks and in the process end up with major health hazards. "We have a traditional watertank in our backyard. The water looks clean but after the floods, it cannot be consumed," said a villager from Borbila village.
Since no MLA has ever addressed their problems, he said, they have decided not to vote for any candidate. "We have planned not to cast our vote," said Urmila Rabha.
Nearly 700 km away, Sadiya in Tinkusia also suffers a similar fate. "We have no drinking water problem in our villages as ground water is not contaminated. What the people face here is sanitation and housing problem," said Lobhit Kumar Saikia of Megela Gaon Panchayat.
A retired college principal, Lobhit Kumar Saikia, rued that people from his panchayat still have not got basic sanitation facilities although many candidates from the ruling party were elected consecutively.
"I am a Congress member since 1976. But my party has not done anything for the people here. Every time they flaunt the development card to win votes. This time I doubt if it will work," said Saikia.