Dharni boycotts ZP elections to protest irrigation project

Nagpur, Feb 25 (UNI) To register their opposition to a proposed irrigation project in Dharni taluka of Amrawati district, not a single candidate has filed nomination papers for the forthcoming Zilla Parishad (ZP) and Panchayat Samiti (PS) elections.

Amravati Collector Ravindra Jadhav told UNI that not a single nomination form was received for the five ZP and ten PS seats in the tehsil as the deadline for submitting papers passed yesterday.

The people in the tehsil are opposed to the building of a dam on Tapi river at Chichghat, about 10 kilometres from Dharni, because they feel it would submerge several tribal villages in the tehsil, the collector said.

Mr Jadhav said he had appealed to the people not to boycott the polls as the project was still at the proposal stage and had not been given administrative approval yet. The site for the project had been identified only on the drawing sheet, he said. The preliminary survey was stopped in July itself after protests against the proposal, he said. Besides, the Irrigation Department had said that only five villages in Maharashtra and eleven in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh would be submerged, he said.

However, the people have expressed apprehension that several low-lying villages would be submerged since the five villages in Maharashtra, identified by the Irrigation Department, were located at high altitude, Mr Jadhav said there would be no polling in Dharni tehsil on the election day of March 11 since no nominations had been received. The elections would probably be clubbed with a by-poll that may be held in future, he added.

There were strict security arrangements at the tehsil office in Dharni yesterday as protestors gathered there in a crowd. A ''bandh'' was also observed there yesterday to protest against the project.

UNI