24 Uttarakhand villages won't have polling booths for Lok Sabha elections 2024. These villages have been abandoned for years and are designated as 'uninhabited villages' by the State Migration Commission.
Uttarakhand will have its Indian general election for 2024 on April 19. The Election Commission is working strategically to ensure every corner of the state gets a polling booth, but there are some villages in the state which won't have any.
These are the villages with zero population and abandoned houses. They are officially called 'deserted villages' which are the result of migration of people from rural areas of Uttarakhand to nearby towns, cities, or other states to find better employment, education, and health services.
Locals call them 'ghost villages' as these are abandoned for years and rarely anyone comes back to visit their ancestral land and homes. According to the data from the State Election Commission, these 24 villages were part of the past 16 Lok Sabha elections since independence, but this time they have been excluded from the list.
The villages have been labelled as 'uninhabited villages' by the State Migration Commission, causing their exclusion from the electoral process. These uninhabited villages are located in the districts of Almora, Champawat, Tehri, Pauri Gharwal, Pithoragarh, and Chamoli.
As per the Migration Commission's study, several locals have sold their ancestral land and left the villages. It also highlighted the abandonment of 80 Gram Panchayats after the permanent migration of a significant chunk of the population in the Almora district.
The 24 ghost villages won't get any campaigning from the candidates or polling booths. Speaking to the media, Uttarakhand’s Chief Electoral Officer, BVRC Purushottam said, "While this issue is linked to migration, the Election Commission has established polling booths even in extremely remote regions of the state inhabited by as less as 50 voters. The Commission’s aim is to facilitate inclusive voting in hard-to-reach areas.”
According to the data, a total of 28,531 people permanently migrated from 2,067 Gram Panchayats between 2018 and 2022. Experts believe that the migration problem can be solved if work on developing these rural areas begins. The lack of employment and facilities forces many individuals from remote areas to leave their ancestral land and migrate to cities every year.
Also Read: How to vote for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024: A guide for first-time voters
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