No sign of reforms here

The dam on the Ajay river inundates this tiny dot of a village every monsoon. No roads, kuccha or pucca, no electricity and no drinking water has reached Karimpur, barely 15 km away from Tagore8217;s Shantiniketan and very much a part of the Bolpur constituency in Birbhum, which goes to the hustings tomorrow.

The dam on the Ajay river inundates this tiny dot of a village every monsoon. No roads, kuccha or pucca, no electricity and no drinking water has reached Karimpur, barely 15 km away from Tagore8217;s Shantiniketan and very much a part of the Bolpur constituency in Birbhum, which goes to the hustings tomorrow.

The villagers, mostly Muslims, make a living by slogging in the fields, but that is clearly not enough to make ends meet. The Left Front is backing three-time sitting MLA Tapan Hore of the RSP, but the Karimpur villagers swear they have never seen either him or his rivals 8212; Chitta Ranjan Rakshit from the Trinamool Congress and Abdur Rahim Chowdhury from the Congress.

8216;8216;For 20 years, we have been ignored. Once, the CPIM asked us to open bank accounts so that they can get us some loans. Nothing came of it. Now, our women are forced to embroider sarees and salwar kameezes. We don8217;t even have enough to buy clothes,8217;8217; says Abdul Mukhtar, a villager.

The situation is no better at Mouligram in the Sriniketan block. About 40 Adivasi households will vote tomorrow, but not a single household has been able to afford an electricity connection. The men are dependent on rainwater for cultivation. The children, working as farm hands, don8217;t attend the ramshackle primary school. 8216;8216;We don8217;t know the names of candidates this time, the CPI-M will take us to the polling station. We last saw Somnath Chatterjee sitting MP from Bolpur during the floods in 8217;99,8217;8217; says Bhabesh Laha.

However, Chatterjee has his own version to the story. 8216;8216;We have done enough development work for the tribal villages as well as for Visva Bharati. Villagers today exercise their franchise along with the sophisticated residents of Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan. The SSDA has got rural electrification and road network for the nearby villages. But we would like to do more,8217;8217; he says.