Varanasi: Around 1.5 lakh boatmen, fishermen and Binds have decided to exercise ‘None of the Above (NOTA)’ option during the high stakes polling on May 12, where Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and Ajay Rai are contesting to prove a point to the nation.
A decision to this effect was taken by the Bind panchayat under the banner of Maa Ganga Nishadraj Seva Samiti. The Binds are a farming community restricted to the banks of the river.
“We decided to use NOTA as no government, neither the state nor the Central, showed any interest in resolving our problems,” said Vinod Kumar Nishad, adding that the decision was taken collectively by the community heads of 84 ghats, apart from Sarai Mohana, Ramnagar and Sujabad, the outskirts of the town. “We are around 1.5 lakh voters of these communities,” he said.
Their demand is inclusion of Nishad (boatmen), Bind (farmers) and Machhuara (fishermen) communities in the Scheduled Caste category, public holiday on Nishadraj Jayanti, basic facilities to their below poverty line families, primary schools for children.