GP poll throws up vivid vignettes in villages

In Haveri taluk just 10 minutes before the closing of the Gram Panchayat polling process at Balambeedu village there was a clash between two groups leaving more than 12 persons including two police personnel injured. Police had to resort to lathi charge to bring the situation under control.

Six persons who were injured seriously during the incident have been admitted to the hospital in Davangere.The other six persons have been treated at a local hospital.

However, the incident had no effect on the polling process and the process was completed at 5 pm.

Village sans voters

In Surathkal, near Mangalore there are no residents in Kalavaru ward of Bala grama panchayat in Dakshina Kannada district.

The reason: they have been displaced for the Mangalore Special Economic Zone and have been rehabilitated in some other areas.

However, in the voters’ lists, they still belong to Kalavaru ward. Five candidates have to be elected to the ward. Two polling booths were set up in Kalavaru. The voters who were earlier residing in Kalavaru ward and were displaced had come back to the ward to exercise their franchise.

Most of them have been rehabilitated at Kodikere colony in Mangalore City Corporation limits. Few of them are residing in Bajpe area. To elect the candidates, they have to travel four to five kilometres. “It is a mockery of democracy to elect representatives to a ward which does not have voters,” said an official.

Gregory Patrao, who gave a stiff resistance to MRPL for the last 16 years and had become a ‘headache’ to KIADB and whose land was recently acquired by the KIADB for the III phase of MRPL is contesting the election from the same Bala Gram Panchayat. The symbol for Gregory Patrao is ‘balance’. One has to wait and see his fate.