What’s New This Panchayat Polls? Stop Monkey Menace Or We Won’t Vote, Say Voters In Odisha’s Bhadrak

Bhubaneswar: Every election brings a new set of demands from the electorate which decide the fate the contestants. This panchayat elections in the state, voters of a village in Bhadrak district have put the demand of stopping monkey menace for the political leaders to get their votes.

The panchayat elections has brought to light the problems faced by the people at ground level. If there is a demand for opening a primary school for education of children in one place, the voters have demanded erection of a telecom tower so that students can avail online education at another.

However, the people of Gopagadadharpur village under Talapada panchayat in Bhadrak district have put forth the demand before the contestants to promise to stop monkey menace, if they want their votes.

Around a dozen villagers have been injured, half of them seriously, in the attacks by monkeys in the last 2 months. The monkeys coming in groups have targeted the villagers even if the latter carry no food items.

According to the villagers, while the simians were eating vegetables and other crops and damaging those in their farmland earlier, now they are attacking the people.

“Though the monkeys earlier used to devour vegetables or fruits, over the last 2 months they have become too violent. A middle-aged woman was walking to her home when a monkey grabbed her and pressed its teeth into her shoulders. She was in hospital for several weeks,” HT quoted Chintamani Das, a Zilla parishad member, who is contesting for Tihidi panchayat samiti member post, as saying.

“We are lucky that schools are closed and hence children are safe. If any candidate makes commitment to end the monkey menace, we will vote for him in the panchayat polls,” said former member of Tihidi panchayat samiti, Harischandra Mishra.

The Forest officials said though they were taking steps to solve the menace by setting up cages to capture the monkeys, it is a tough task. “There have been several efforts in the past in other districts to drive away the monkeys, but they have not been very successful,” said Bhadrak Divisional Forest Officer Adhir Behera.

It may be noted that people of different panchayats in Teleibani block of Deogarh district have decided to boycott the polls for lack of mobile network. Similarly, the voters of Bijipur village in Kendrapada district have decided to boycott the polls in protest against closure of village schools under the school merger policy of the state government.