Shimla, Oct 27
As many as 1058 electorates of Rarang village in Nichar Tehsil of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh, India have given the call of boycott of bye election seeking to scrapping of proposed 780MW Jangi Thopan hydropower project in the region.
District Magistrate who is returning officer of Kinnuar district Apoorav Davgan urged the villagers to reconsider the decision by ensuring the high turnout.
The election commission of India wanted to ensure high turn out in the bye election by organizing the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) district have tried to contact the village representatives boycotting the election, stated the Election commission spokesperson.
The Chief Secretary, DGP and CEO were at Reckong-Peo to ensure free and fair by poll in the Mandi Parliamentary seat; however during the meeting the issue was figured during the high level meeting. The press release issued by the state election department was silent on the issue.
Talking about it, a spokesperson of the district administration said that under SVEEP and on
individual efforts RO made an appeal to the villagers to reconsider their decisions but the
villagers did not accept the appeal.
Local residents said that CS and DGP are expected to talk to the agitating villagers however since most of protesting villagers reportedly belonged to opposition parties special Congress it may be highly unlikely that they would go in the interest of the ruling party in the state.
Villagers of Rarang have been sent a complaint to Election Commission stating that on the
guidance of their deity, villagers wanted to scrap the Jangi Thopan project proposed
on the Satluj river as tunneling of the project would threaten the existence of village as the Kinnuar district is considered ecologically fragile.
The state Government allocated this project to Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVN) in 2018-19 by the Jai Ram Government and the village is located about 55 km away from subdivision headquarter Bhavanagar. Rarang village is situated 55km away from district headquarter Bhawanagar.