Balamia residents threaten poll boycott over road neglect

Dibrugarh: Residents of Balamia village in Sivasagar district have issued a stern warning to the state govt and their local legislator — fix the road or lose their votes.Hundreds of villagers took to the streets on Saturday, waving banners displaying the slogan “No Road, No Vote”, threatening to collectively boycott the upcoming assembly elections unless the long-neglected road connecting their village to the outside world is repaired within 30 days.The protest, which drew participation from nearly all of the village’s approximately 80 families, has shone a spotlight on a crumbling 5-km stretch of road linking Balamia to Jamuguri and National Highway-37 — a lifeline that residents say has seen no meaningful repairs in nearly two decades.According to villagers, the road is perpetually in a state of disrepair, choked with mud, slush, and deep potholes not just during the monsoon season but throughout the year.

“We feel ashamed when our relatives come to visit. They cannot bring their vehicles to our village. They have to park on the highway and walk. This is 2024, and we are living like we are cut off from the rest of the world,” village elder Sadananda Borah said.The impact of the neglected road goes far beyond inconvenience. The village area is home to three educational institutions and students are forced to wade through mud and navigate treacherous potholes every single day to attend school.

Balamia falls under the Sivasagar assembly constituency, represented by MLA Akhil Gogoi. Villagers claim they have met with Gogoi on four to five separate occasions over the years, each time receiving assurances that the road would be repaired — and each time left waiting in vain.The villagers have now drawn a hard line. They have given Akhil a 30-day ultimatum to begin and complete repairs on the road. If the deadline passes without action, an approximate 350 registered voters of Balamia have pledged to boycott the assembly polls.