FROM RAPE to murder to rob- bery—there is no heinous crime that the stretch that con- nects 40-odd villages to Modinagar town has not wit- nessed, thanks to this road. The same road is back in news. In a meeting of the village heads held in Niwari on Sunday afternoon, it was unanimously decided the villagers would exercise the option of Rule 49 (O) of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, to mark their protest. “We will tell the world by way of this unique protest the harrowing time we have had for the last five years,” said Raj Kumar Verma, president of Sadak Sangharsh Samiti. Rule 49(O) allows the voters to abstain from voting for any candidate and register a com- plaint with the presiding offi- cer giving reasons for not vot- ing. Apprised by the pressure group Youth For Equality, many natives like Munisha Bala (65) are campaigning from door to door asking, people to exercise the rule in the com- ing elections. “We call it the killer road. So many women of our village lost their husbands in accidents due to the bad con- dition of this road,” said Bala. “Sadak nahin to vote nahin” (No road, no vote) and “49 (O) Zindabad” are the popular slo- gans doing rounds in their vil- lage. The road has a court case pending against its contractor at Allahabad High Court. It has also led to several protests, including a hunger strike in past few years. But nothing seemed to have worked. Niwari resident Ritesh Kumar (27) who works with a media house in Lajpat Nagar in Delhi said it takes him an hour extra to reach office just because of the five-kilometre long stretch of the road. “Driving a mobike on that stretch is so risky that to be safe one has to bring the speed down to 5 to 10 km/hr,” he said. The stretch is in such a bad condition that private buses or vans abstain from driving on it, leaving villagers with few commuting options. “Last year a young girl of Mawi village who worked in Delhi was raped on her way back by a fellow vil- lager from whom she took a lift,” added Kumar. Robberies are also rampant on the stretch that has no street-lights.
