Koraput: Residents of five villages under Sadar police limits in this district have warned of boycotting the upcoming polls over lack of an underpass under the railway line passing near Ghatamundar and Tiadiputa villages, a report said Tuesday.
The matter came to the fore after villagers staged a rail roko on the railway track near Ghatamundar and Tiadiputa villages. The agitation disrupted rail services on the route with many trains remaining stranded at Koraput and Suku railway stations.
The villagers relented after the railway authorities assured to construct an underpass following the intervention of the district Collector V Keerthi Vasan. While leaving, they warned to boycott the upcoming polls if the railway authorities do not construct an underpass before the general elections.
The villagers alleged that the Kolab river flows on one side of their villages while the rail route passes on the other side. Their miseries multiply during the rainy season.
They said that the residents of the five villages have to cross the railway line everyday to attend to their work or tend to their livestock on the grassland opposite the track. Many villagers and livestock die or are rendered critical while crossing the track. They have been demanding construction of an underpass for a long period but their pleas have fell on deaf ears of the railway authorities.
PNN