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Journalism of Courage
Twenty-eight-year-old Yaker Yama comes from a village close to the international border with China, somewhere beyond Tali in Kurung Kumey district. Not just Yama, the absence of motorable roads has forced hundred others to migrate to the state capital and other urban areas. This has prompted Arunachal Pradesh CM Nabam Tuki to raise an alarm.
“There are no roads to our village. We have to trek across mountains for several days to reach there,” said Yama, who has shifted along with her husband and two children to Itanagar. She sells pork to make both ends meet. There are hundreds of people like them, from numerous border villages who have migrated to “better developed” areas.
Some of them, like Yama, have registered themselves as voters here. But most of them are eligible to vote in their villages, thus forcing them to either walk back to cast their votes or give up the idea of voting. “I will cast my vote here,” said Yama with pride, flashing her voter identity card. But not all are as lucky as her.
Yaja Pordung (26) for instance, has migrated from Khenewa village under Bameng assembly segment in East Kameng district, close to the China border. Or, Prem Beyong (22), from the same village. But, while Pordung has transferred his name to Itanagar, Beyong has already left for his village to cast his vote Wednesday.
The migration has been such that in polling stations in many border villages, female voters outnumber their male counterpart because mostly the males have moved out. In Pipsorang polling station under Tali assembly segment from where Yaker Yama comes, there are only 170 male voters against 345 females.
But the remote villages are not deprived of a voting opportunity. “Some of our polling officials have already started moving out three days ago,” said state chief electoral officer Chandra Bhushan Kumar. In fact, there are 664 polling stations spread over 12 districts where the only means for polling personnel to reach is on foot.
“We have also hired the services of 1,200 casual porters to carry polling materials like EVMs and other items to the remote stations and also guide the officials through the mountains,” said Kumar.
CM Tuki admits there were still huge gaps in basic services and infrastructure that needed to be addressed in those areas.
