What use expressway? In fertile Ballia,they say they need roads,power,water

The Expressway was Chief Minister Mayawati’s dream project which,it was said,will open up eastern UP,the state’s most backward area,for development by providing a fast link to the national capital. Mayawati never came here — she unveiled the plaque at her Lucknow residence on January 15,2008,her 52nd birthday — and later it was brought and installed in Maldevpur village. Over a year later,there is no sign of the project taking off. Since it is election time,the fears and apprehensions of landowners have provided a ready issue to Mayawati’s rivals.

“It will take away the livelihood of farmers without actually giving them anything,” alleges BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Sinha.

The BSP’s Sangram Singh Yadav tries to convince the farmers that the Expressway will actually change the landscape of eastern UP,bringing in investments and prosperity,but finds few takers.

“Foundation stones do not provide us work,these fields do. Didi (Mayawati) should understand this. She has deployed policemen to guard her stone. But they never come when we need them,” says Dalit farmer Sita Ram,whose house is closest to the foundation.

“Expressway or not,we need electricity,we need roads to go to nearby towns and villages. This place gets flooded in the rainy season,” said another farmer Radha Mohan. “We are not against development as officers seem to believe. But we are not big businessmen who would go to Delhi each day to sell vegetables or grains.”

Landowners in villages like Kohri Kakar and Mubarakpur say they could understand if the government needed land only for the highway. “They also want to take the

land along the highway and give it to the private company,” said Udai Shankar Rai.

Obviously,there is a crisis of credibility.

Ballia has suffered neglect for long,although it elected former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar to the Lok Sabha consistently since 1977,the exception being in 1984.

The town is on the bank of Ganga,but there is a shortage of drinking water. Roads are bad,electricity only for eight to 10 hours a day,and the health facilities abject.

And it is these daily problems that the people are more concerned about. In the two years the BSP government has been there,it seems to have done little.

After Chandra Shekhar died in December 2007,his son Neeraj Shekhar won the seat in the by-election ¿ with a sympathy vote. He is contesting now as Samajwadi Party candidate. Locals say the fight will not be easy for him.

“Chandra Shekhar ji ki bat kuch aur thi,” says RN Yadav,who lives some distance from Chandra Shekhar’s palatial house,ironically called “Baba ki jhonpari”.

Explains the BJP candidate: “People took pride in the fact that a national leader like Chandra Shekhar hailed from Ballia and they all voted for him. That does not apply to Neeraj. What has he done in the last one and a half year?”

Neeraj’s representative Satosh Kumar says: “Bhaiya has done whatever he could in the short time he had. He has got electric poles installed in the villages,but the government is not supplying electricity.”

The SP supporters point out that after the delimitation,the population of Rajputs,Yadavs and Bhumihars has increased which will help Neeraj.

In fact,the substantial presence of Yadavs was one of the reasons why the BSP fielded Sangram Singh Yadav ¿ it was assumed that his own caste plus the Dalits will ensure his victory.

“There was a rally of Mayawati here yesterday. The crowd was huge,but most of it had been brought from neighbouring districts,especially Ghazipur,” said Yatendra Bahadur Singh,senior Congress leader in Ballia. The Congress is neither contesting,nor supporting anyone.