Raichur: Votes bought for Rs 100 each

DHNS

Raichur, 27 December 2010: They were allegedly flashed a 100-rupee note to exercise their franchise and those who did not succumb to the lure, are said to have been threatened.

 

 

One-and-a-half years after the devastating floods which hit their village, when relief is still a distant dream to them, the flood-hit families walked at least a distance of four km to exercise their franchise in the zilla and taluk panchayat elections, here on Sunday.

 

Residing in temporary tin sheds set up by the district administration, the flood-hit families in Talamari village of Raichur taluk shared their woes with Deccan Herald.“We do not have a roof over our heads. We are staying temporarily  in these settlements. Today the leaders are back again to ‘buy our votes.’

 

Threats too

 

“They flashed a 100-rupee note in front of us and when we questioned about our houses, they threatened us by saying - vote otherwise you will lose this tent too...” said one of the members of a flood-hit family.

 

“Why should we vote? The Government has not bothered to construct houses for us. Political parties including the Congress, the BJP and the JD(S) have all bribed us. We took money from them and cast our vote as per our knowledge about the candidate,” said Roopamma, Jayamma, Mariyamma, Anand and Suvarnamma.

 

They said, “After the floods pushed us to the streets and running families became a difficult task, several of us migrated to the nearby Peddaturu, Nelgonda and other places in search of jobs. We worked at the brick factories in Andhra Pradesh and now we are back to our villages for paddy harvest. We are even deprived of our stock of ration.”

 

“We cast our vote, irrespective of whether the Government has done anything for us. Frankly, we did it for namesake, not even bothering to know about the candidates who contested the elections,” they said.