Villagers boycott panchayat elections

BANKURA: A total of 125 families of Bhurrudanga village would boycott next month's panchayat elections in Bankura district to protest lack of electricity.
    
Villagers Mangal Tudu, Barulal Sahish, Nabakumar Pal, Kabita Mandal, Kusumoni Saren claimed that poles were set up 14 years ago to bring electricity to the village, but it had not arrived so far.
    
The nearest point that electricity had reached was 15 km away at Jhilmili village, the villagers, who belong to the Ratoura gram panchayat said.
    
There was also no latrine and no work under the Indira Abash Yojana in the village, with poor villagers earning their livelihood by selling kendu leaves and sabai grass from a nearby jungle, they said.
    
Most labourers had migrated to work in fields at Ghatsila, Hoodloom, Mayur Jhanrna, Jhanti Jharna as Singbhum in Jharkhand was just 10 km, they added.