Farmers boycott polling in some parts of MP over non-payment of compensation

Govt still to distribute compensation against crop losses mainly due to hailstorms

Shashikant Trivedi Bhopal
Last Updated : Apr 10 2014 | 3:30 PM IST
Non-payment of compensation against crop losses due to recent hailstorms, and wages under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), few places of Madhya Pradesh reported boycott of polling. However chief electoral officer said here the state has reported 36.81% polling at its nine Lok Sabha constituencies.

Naxal-affected area of Balaghat has posted 41.47% poll while Shahdol posted the highest 45.25% polling till 1400hrs. Rewa constituency reporter the lowest 26.0% votes.

Enraged over non-distribution of compensation against crop losses, farmers in Mandla boycotted polling but later polling resumed. Chhindwara and its two villages Tamia and Chawalpani also reported boycott but the chief electoral officer Jaydeep Govind said, “Polling is going on peacefully at these places.”

The Churhat in Sidhi Lok Sabha constituency also reported boycott as labourers were demanding wages under NREGS. Similarly Singrauli district also reported reluctant voters on issues pertaining to non-availability of power, road and water. Jabalpur and Katni districts also reported boycott and reluctant voters but later administrative machinery convinced them to vote.

“Polling started in time on all 16592 booths of nine constituencies. Except for few polling stations after mock-poll to check proper functioning of electronic voting machines, polling is going on peacefully. Saunsar of Chhindwara constituency, Sohagpur of Hoshangabad, Jaitpur and Bandhavgarh of Shahdol, one polling station in Mandla and Sidhi each replacement of EVMs due to technical problem.”

Balaghat also reported late voting at one booth due to technical problem in EVM where polling begins one hour late, he said.
As many as 118 candidates are contesting from the nine seats including senior congress leader and Union Minister Kamal Nath from Chhindwara and former leader of opposition in state assembly Ajay Singh.
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First Published: Apr 10 2014 | 3:22 PM IST

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