M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, May 19: The voters of Kokro village on Thursday abstained from voting for one and a half hours during the second phase of polling in Palamu.
The villagers were angry over the relocation of their booth from Kokro to Akwaniya. They demanded the restoration of their Kokro booth and said that they would opt to vote only after restoration.
It was a difficult situation for the civil administration. All pleas by the administration for taking part in the voting went over the heads of the voters. They just wanted restoration of the booth and refused to heed the civil officials.
On getting the information, Palamu SP Chandan Kumar Sinha reached there and made a loud statement.
He said, “Voters rest assured that from next time, your Kokro booth will not be relocated.” The SP said this straight to the women voters who were more vocal about not voting.
The SP’s words clicked soon enough. The voters who were sitting in anger queued up to cast vote.
SP Chandan said he did not do any pleading as to why the Kokro booth was relocated because it would not have broken the ice. SP said he made no mistake about reading the mood and minds of voters. The voters wanted to be reassured of no further relocation and as SP said he just played to their sentiments.
Chhatarpur police nab four with arms, seize vehicles
In another major development, Chhatarpur police in Palamu today recovered two loaded desi kattas, seized three four-wheelers and nabbed four persons.
Confirming this, Palamu SP said the kattas, the vehicles and the men all were for the polling today but their mission was aborted by our vigilant police force.
“We are investigating the episode,” he said. Sources said the men and machine were for two contestants, one Zila Parishad candidate, and the other a Mukhiya candidate.
