Ranchi villagers boycott elections,demand road

With no action being taken on their long-pending demand for a road,more than a thousand people of Sugnu village in Ranchi LS constituency boycotted the polls on Thursday.

The problem can be traced to the 1980s when the state Government acquired land from many villagers and transferred it to the Army to set up its headquarters of 23 Artillery Division at Dipatoli on city outskirts. With a pond on its left,paddy fields on its right and the Armys establishment in front,Sugnu became a land-locked village without any road connecting it with the city.

Over the past two decades,villagers held dharnas and staged hunger strikes demanding an approach road but to no effect. On Wednesday,they had again staged a protest. When the police intervened,they pelted them with stones,leading to firing in which two villagers were injured.