Saturday, 13 APRIL 2024 | PREM PRAKASH UPADHYAY | BAGESHWAR
As the authorities work to ensure a free and fair festival of democracy, the acquisition of commercial vehicles for the Lok Sabha elections is affecting the wedding plans of the people in the Kumaon region. The Transport Department has acquired vehicles for transporting personnel on poll duty and necessary items for the polling scheduled for April 19. In such a situation, it has become difficult for people here to arrange vehicles for wedding processions. Due to most of the vehicles in Kumaon being acquired by the authorities for election duty, the people are in a quandary with weddings starting in the auspicious period from April 14. People who had already made their wedding plans before the vehicles were acquired for election duty are now repeatedly contacting the vehicle owners to check if there is any scope for transporting the wedding party.
For the successful conduct of elections, the Transport department has acquired 5,523 vehicles in the entire Kumaon region. Out of these, 1,507 have been acquired in Nainital district, 1,055 in Udham Singh Nagar, 993 in Almora, 676 in Bageshwar, 836 in Pithoragarh and 465 in Champawat district. Due to such a large number of public transport vehicles being acquired, it is becoming difficult for people to get vehicles for weddings. The vehicles have also been acquired for the vote-from-home facility being provided for voters aged 85 years and above along with handicapped voters.
The drivers along with the acquired vehicles have to report at the designated place on April 14. The authorities will fix the schedule for the vehicles after this. Accordingly, the vehicles carrying the polling parties will leave on April 17 and 18. The vehicles will be allowed to return to their original place after April 21 following completion of the election duty. Due to this, the vehicle owners are not accepting bookings for wedding programmes. A vehicle owner in Kemu, Pithoragarh, Mahesh Dhariyal said, “Our vehicles have already been acquired from the depot. The common folks are facing problems due to this, in addition to being deprived of the income one used to make from weddings. However, the election duty is necessary and one of my vehicles is on poll duty in Champawat district too,” he said.
