Punjab: Basiala Village Voters Boycott Polling For Opening Of ‘No Man Rail Road’ Crossing
Hoshiarpur, Feb 20: The electorates of village Basiala in Garhshankar assembly segment on Sunday boycotted the polling for Vidhan Sabha elections in protest against the closing of gates of C.62- no man railroad crossing on Jalandhar-SBS Nagar-Jaijon rail track near their village.
Talking to UNI, Village Sarpanch Hardev Singh said no man railroad crossing had been closed about three years ago for the reasons best known to the railway authorities, causing great difficulties for the inhabitants of villages Basiala, Bakapur Guru, Rasoolpur, Chauhra, Denowal Kalan and Dogarpur falling under Anandpur Lok Sabha constituency.
Due to the closing of the gates of the no man railroad crossing, commuters have to travel a long distance of about 2 Kms to reach his village which was constructed by the rail authorities as an alternative route. There are so many sharp turns on this alternative narrow route and it is very difficult to move tractor-trailers and school buses among others on the route.
They had made a number of representations to MP Manish Tewari, Union Railway Minister, authorities of Ferozepur Railway Division and district administration in this regard but nothing had materialised so far. They had also sent a proposal to the railway authorities that the salary to railway guard and other expenses of the no man railroad crossing would be met by the affected panchayats.
Deputy Commissioner cum District Election Officer Apneet Riyait told UNI that joint efforts by the district administration and the police were being made to persuade the electorates of village Basiala to take part in the polling. Some of the electorates had cast their votes in village Rasoolpur. She appealed to the electorates of both these villages to cast their votes.
Garhshankar SDM Arvind Kumar said as many as 1117 electorates are in village Basiala and the administration had set up two booths in the village for the polling. He had personally visited the village Basiala today and appealed to the electorates to cast their votes. But the villagers were adamant to first reopen the gates of the said no-man railroad crossing. He had asked the villagers to meet him a day after tomorrow.
Inhabitants of villages Basiala, Rasoolpur, Chahera and Bakarpur had been protesting for the last 15 days to pressurize the Central government for reopening of the railroad crossing.
On February 13 last they also blocked vehicular traffic at village Basiala on Nawanshahar-Garhshankar road in support of their demand. Later, the villagers of Basiala and Rasoolpur warned to block rail traffic on the aforesaid line at village Basiala on February 18 and to boycott the polling for Vidhan Sabha elections.
