The village, part of the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency, has the Yamuna river cutting across its breadth.
Around 200 villagers from Dalelpur in Haryana, spent the day off-roading and crossing a river to cast votes as general elections began on Thursday.
The village, part of the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency, has the Yamuna river cutting across its breadth. While one half of the village is in Haryana, the other is in Uttar Pradesh. It was a part of Haryana until 1982.
Voters had to walk and drive on battered roads for three kilometres to reach the river bank and the take a boat to the other side to reach the polling booth in Gulawali village. Villagers complained that they are never visited by any political party, but they still cast their votes, considering it their duty.
Villagers also said that there are no healthcare and education facilities, electricity, roads and documents such as Aadhaar Card, driver's licence or pension cards for the elderly. This, even though they risk their lives to cast a vote.
"The village has been voting since 1984 and it feels likes we have only made a fool of ourselves. We have been ignored by the government and local administration over the years. We trek on bad roads and risk crossing the polluted Yamuna. It is either that or going all the way through Faridabad and Delhi via Kalindi Kunj, covering about 70 km, to reach the polling station in Gulawali," said Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Dalelpur.
Singh further said that there is only one boat that operates between the two banks of the river, with Dalelpur on one side and Yakutpur on the other. Meanwhile, the entire village had decided against voting in this election.
"However, every election renews our hope that this time a new candidate will do something for us," he said.
"I made and my fellow villagers put in a lot of efforts to reach the polling booth. I hope something good happens. It is the only village in Noida which falls across the Yamuna but belongs to the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency. Perhaps if the village is made part of Haryana, the situation might improve. The administration has not even bothered reaching out to us for any awareness programme," said Gansham Sharma, a resident.
Villagers also said that most of the times a lot of people don't find their names are not on the voter list.
The administration had promised to provide a motorboat to the villagers. However, when DNA visited the village, no motorboat was seen. There was only one boat, arranged by the villagers themselves.
"We just request the administration and the upcoming MP to visit us and hear our grievances and see the condition we are living in. Most of the times, we do not have proper electricity. A lot of people have started leaving the village," said Sharma.
The villagers, he claims, once tried to build a bridge on the river, but the administration destroyed it and instead booked them on charges of sand mining. Villagers also alleged that Prime Narendra Modi's urbanisation scheme for the villages are just an eyewash.
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