Malkangiri: People traversing about 60 km including two boat rides via neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to exercise their franchise in the ongoing panchayat polls in once upon a time Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected Malkangiri is nothing but the triumph of democracy.
Ramchandrapur, Gunthabeda, and Daleiput villages of Manyamkunda gram panchayat under Kalimela block in Malkangiri district are located atop hills.
For security reasons, polling booths of these villages have been located downhill at Tagorkata village by the district administration.
Voters-men and women from these villages on Tuesday took the arduous journey of 60 km via Andhra Pradesh on auto-rickshaws, crossed two rivers and covered the last 4km in government buses provided by the district administration to reach the polling booth to exercise their right to vote.
“We have come here to cast our votes so that our names remain in the records. We have travelled 60 km through Andhra. We have crossed two rivers to reach here,” said Reddy Chinnarao, a voter of Ramachandrapur village who had come to Tagorkota to cast his vote.
He said that their village has no Anganwadi centre, no school nor has any doctor.
“We men and women have travelled 60 km, walked, took boat rides to reach here to cast our votes,” said Rama Pentawa, another voter of Ramachandrapur.
