Dalelpur villagers go across 3 state borders to vote

NOIDA: Dalelpur is a small hamlet in Gautam Budh Nagar district, with a population of only around 300 — only 50 of whom are registered voters. Till a few years ago, it used to be part of the much larger Gulawali village, near Noida Sector 162, but in 2018, was made a separate village — the only village in GB Nagar that is on the other side of the Yamuna.

Over the years, Dalelpur’s isolation from the rest of the district has thrown up many challenges for its residents — any official work means they have to cross the Yamuna.

During the 2019 elections, the nearest polling booth was in Gulawali, which meant that those who wished to vote were forced to take a 20-minute boat ride across the river.

On Friday, the villagers ditched the boats in favour of cabs, travelling 60km across three state borders — first the UP-Haryana border, then Haryana-Delhi, and then Delhi-UP — in a journey that lasted around two hours.

“Taking the boat to cross the river takes about 20 minutes. However, it would have been inconvenient for us because we only have one boat, while there were 50 voters. Thus, we took cabs, taking 11 vehicles for Gulawali, where our polling booth is located,” said Satpal Chaprana, 25, a resident of Dalelpur.

The residents said that their basic rights have been infringed upon as there is no poll booth in their village.

“Let alone infrastructure, schools, or electricity, we are not even given an opportunity to exercise our basic right of voting. If the administration makes a poll booth in our village, we will not have to travel 60 kilometres just to vote,” said Kailash Pradhan, 62, the village head.

According to the district authorities, Dalelpur does not qualify for a separate poll booth, as per the criteria laid down by the Election Commission of India.

“The basic criteria to set up a polling booth in a village is that it should have at least 300 voters. However, Dalelpur only has 50 voters. Moreover, the poll booth should be set up in a government building or a community centre — the booth cannot be set up at someone’s house or out in the open. As such an establishment is missing from the village, their poll booth was made at Gulawali village,” said district magistrate Manish Verma, who is also chief election officer for the GB Nagar parliamentary seat.

However, the villagers feel that they have been “forgotten”.

“We made an effort to come all the way to Gulawali to vote because we want to set an example for our children — that every vote counts. However, it seems that the government has forgotten us. Are 50 votes not important?” Neeraj Tyagi, 40, another resident, said.