Miffed with Nagar Nigam, ‘VIP Colony’ residents to boycott poll

By PRABEER SIKDAR
DEHRADUN, 5 May 2009:
With the last phase of General Elections about to be held in the state, public representatives it seems are already receiving brickbats from an unlikely quarter: the rich and influential residents of ‘VIP Colony’!
Fed up with the Nagar Nigam’s maladministration, the ‘VIP Colony’ (officially known as 21 EC Road) residents put up a banner late evening, yesterday, confirming their unanimous decision not to vote this election.
The reason
“The Colony has only one approach road, which has been under repair by the Nagar Nigam staff for the last two months,” said a resident, on condition of anonymity.
The residents complain that due to petty politics, the Nagar Nigam appointed contractor, who was supposed to lay a tar road for up to 100 metres distance, was acting lethargically.
“First, they dug up the road, which caused immense difficulty to vehicle owners as they were forced to park their vehicles outside the Colony entrance. This continued for more than 10 days. Later, the contractor entrusted with the task, laid stones without leveling the ground. This went on for almost a month…,” lamented another resident, whose vehicle got punctured because of this a few days ago.
Ironically, though all the residents suffer the problem collectively, they had, so far, not protested vociferously enough or in a visible manner. “Almost 80% of the residents are retired government employees. The remaining few are working employees, who do not have the time to stage a dharna or make the round of the Nagar Nigam offices,” said another resident, adding that this was the reason why nobody wants to be quoted publicly.
Apart from housing government offices, as well as a media house and a Fashion Institute, some of the important residents of this Colony include a serving PCS officer and a retired Judge of the High Court.
Among the prime reasons cited by the residents for their woes is that the Colony falls in a ward represented by a Congress Corporator, while the Mayor represents the ruling BJP. “We have met the Mayor a couple of times. But so far, we have got only assurances,” disclosed another resident.
“This political irony apart, there is also a kind of unionism among contractors, who do the bidding of the politicians.
”Interestingly, the residents have also made a local BJP leader the ‘Colony Pradhan’, who moved to the colony only recently. But, this also seems to be of no avail. “He moved to VIP Colony last year,” added another resident.
When Garhwal Post tried to contact the contractor to hear his version, his mobile phone was found switched off.
However, when told of the provision of a "protest vote" under the The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, a ‘VIP Colony’ resident pointed out, “In the EVM, there is no such option’.
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