No basic amenities, no vote: Rambagh residents

Jhanjharpur: Residents of Rambagh village in Jhanjharpur constituency have decided to boycott election protesting lack of toilets, electricity and unavailability of drinking water.
“Sarkar evam netaon dwara vikas ke andekhi rawaiye ke karan Rambagh gaon me netaon ka pravesh varjit hai. Bijli, shudh jal evam shauchalay nahin to vote nahin,’’ reads a banner at the village.
A group of men and women standing at the intersection of the village tries to stop a campaign vehicle of the grand alliance from entering the village. ‘’We will not vote this time, so why shout yourself hoarse in favour of your neta,” they ask, forcing the vehicle campaigning for RJD candidate Gulab Yadav to retreat.
“Repeated applications to officials concerned for construction of toilets at the village has fallen on deaf ears,” said Pradeep Kumar, a youth of the village. He rued that despite the Prime Minister’s clarion call for ‘swachhta’, sanitation is still a far cry at the village. “We still do not have a single proper toilet built by the government. Women have to go out in the open to defecate. Why should we allow any candidate in the village to parrot false promises every five years?” asked a visibly agitated sexagenarian Puran Thakur of the village.
More than 500 voters of the village, mostly belonging to the Kushwaha community, owe their allegiance to NDA, though it has some Muslim voters too. “Sitting MLA and BJP candidate from Jhanjharpur Nitish Mishra has not bothered to visit us yet,” they said. Laswa Mahto, a woman in her 50s, said she now hesitates to send her daughters out in open at night, with increasing numbers of rape and molestation cases coming to light.
Electricity is yet to reach the village where solar lights light up most of the houses in the evenings. The village also does not have a proper source of clean drinking water. “We were promised ration cards, but that too has not been given to us,” said Ajay who sells snacks and paan from a small shop at the village.
“I agree that Rambagh village has some issues and it is one of the 4,000 villages in the state where electricity has not reached yet. I have requested the villagers to give me another five years,” Mishra said.