Amid tight security, electronic voting machines, laptops, web cameras and other materials required for conducting polls were carried with the help of mules and donkeys to booths located on Agamalai and Bodi Mettu on the Western Ghats in the Bodi constituency and the Vellakavi panchayat on the Kodaikanal hill in the Palani constituency on Sunday.
Uradi and Uthukadu villages with 484 votes are located on the Agamalai hill. Officials have set up a polling station for the two villages at Uthukadu. Voters at Uradi will have to trek four km on the hilly terrain to reach the booth at Uthukadu. Poll materials were transported in a jeep up to Sothuparai dam from Periyakulam and later on the back of mules to reach the destination.
Presiding Officer Balagurunathan, Sub-Inspector Karl Marx and other poll officials and the mobile party trekked 10 km after crossing forest streams to reach Agamalai. Poll materials were also transported with the help of mules and donkeys to remote villages in Bodimettu area on Western Ghats in Bodi through the Kurangani check post.
Donkeys transported materials to polling stations to Karipatti and Kaannakarai villages. Earlier, all poll materials used to be transported in mini-lorries up to Kurangani and then by donkeys and mules to these villages.
“With the help of villagers, we have to trek nine km to reach these villages. It will take at least three to four hours to reach the destination, said Presiding Officer Jastin Santhappa.
Poll officials travelled through Kumuli in Kerala to reach Top Station and Kozhukkumalai, situated on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.
Officials in Dindigul district faced the same ordeal to reach Chinnur and Periyur at Vellakavi panchayat on Kodaikanal hill in Palani constituency. A team of officials trekked eight km on the hilly deep slopes from Vattakanal, four km away from Kodaikanal town to reach the villages.
No roads
Road connectivity, a decades-old demand of voters at Vellakavi, remains unfulfilled. As usual, all candidates of the Palani constituency promised to bring road to the villages.
