Mahadayi activists plan NOTA campaign against parties

HUBBALLI: Fed up with lackadaisical attitude of political parties to resolve the dispute over sharing water of the Mahadayi with Goa, protestors are banking upon NOTA (none of the above) option during coming polls to the Legislative Council and zilla and taluk panchayats.

Those at the forefront of the agitation demanding implementation of Kalasa-Banduri irrigation project plan to demonstrate their strength by creating awareness about the NOTA option are distributing pamphlets in every village. Though elections to the Council would witness return of ballot papers, the Election Commission has introduced NOTA for the first time, but a majority of the members of panchayats and other local governing bodies have no knowledge about this opportunity. The authorities concerned have not publicized about this facility. Therefore, the agitators are visiting nine taluks of Dharwad, Gadag, Belagavi and Bagalkot districts coming under Malaprabha river basin to convince voters of the importance of NOTA. “We have staged several protests, bandh to attract the attention of politicians. But, they just indulged in blame game to get mileage instead of resolving the Mahadayi dispute. Earlier, we had given call to boycott the elections. Now, we have started a campaign to reject all candidates by casting NOTA vote to teach a lesson to all political parties,” said Kalasa Banduri Horata Samiti president Vijay Kulkarni.

Farmers’ leaders feel that the voters might not cast NOTA vote as all of them are loyal to some political party. Moreover, candidates are also wooing them with some gifts and other inducements. Therefore, farmers’ organizations have decided to intensify the awareness campaign about NOTA during forthcoming panchayat elections.