Establishment of a polling station in their own village has brought much cheer for the 69 aboriginal Raj Gond voters of Metiguda and Dubbaguda habitations in Sirpur (U) mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district.
They are now saved of the tiring 12-km. trek through hilly forest terrain to access their polling station at Babjipet.
Until the 2014 general election, these voters had exercised their franchise in Pangdi polling station which could be accessed only through the hilly forests. In 2014, the Election Commission took note of the difficulty of the ethnic voters and allocated them to Babjipet polling station because of which the distance was reduced by half but the trek to reach the polling station continued to be arduous.
The problem was once again taken note of by the election authorities, who decided to establish a polling station right in Metiguda itself for the local and Dubbaguda voters which became a cause of happiness for the voters.
As the Adivasi voters have always voted more diligently than other sections of society, it had seemed quite harsh to have made them face the problem. In the 2013 panchayat election held in monsoon, the voters had to make the journey to Pangdi three times owing to rain induced postponements.
Pendur Dattu, an elder from Metiguda swears that the voters of this tiny habitation never had a reason to be happy since elections began being held in these parts.
“Both my grandfather and father died without their wish of voting in an accessible polling station fulfilled,” he lamented as he tried to give background of the problem faced by the voters of these habitations.
Old Athram Mankubai, who had led the voters in a line to the distant polling stations, had a wide grin on her face as she saw the tiny primary school building in the village being designated as polling station number 118, which is probably the polling station with least number of voters in Telangana with just 69 voters.
“Will the voting machine be installed here,” she asked of her compatriots in Gondi, apparently in disbelief.
Metiguda and Dubbaguda hamlets are part of Sirpur (U) mandal but are accessible only from Kerameri as they are located about 5 km from the mandal headquarter, in different directions though. While the former is accessible through a partly black topped and partly metalled road now, the latter can be reached by covering the last 2 km on foot.
