Karkala: The residents of Idu village have decided to boycott the upcoming ZP and TP elections over the governments failure to tend to their grievances, especially their continuous efforts to fix bad roads in the village that have been causing distress to them for a while now.
It has been only 6 years since the roads were fixed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and people are already facing a hard time as they are riddled with potholes.

People here are angry that their grievances have not been attended to by any political party over the last five years. The villagers have put up a big banner announcing their decision to boycott the elections.

The road work was started in 2002, December under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Rs 25 lakhs were sanctioned for the work of fixing a 2.28km road stretch.

The work was undertaken by a state government led board. During the process, the locals reportedly complained to the concerned department and representatives about low quality work.

Due to the poor condition of the roads, many buses have stopped plying on many routes creating a problem for students and the public.

Now, the locals have decided to boycott the elections as their pleas to repair the roads have fallen on deaf ears.

On Monday, February 2, locals protested outside the DC’s office in this regard.

The issue has turned into a political weapon for most of the parties. Earlier in Sanoor too, locals had put up a banner saying that they would be boycotting the elections due to unrepaired road. During that time, an election candidate had violated the election code of conduct and met the locals and promised to repair the road.

This time too, many parties are expected to take advantage of the issue to benefit their vote banks.