With the release of notification of Panchayat elections, there is an atmosphere of excitement in the villages. This time, due to the delay in elections, there is a lot of enthusiasm among the people. With changing times, village people have also become aware and they are giving priority to electing eligible candidates from the village unanimously without voting. Despite this, elections are certain to be held in most of the villages.
In such a situation, as a voter it is our personal responsibility to select the right candidate. As soon as the notification of Panchayat elections is issued, the candidates wishing to become Sarpanch and Panch start going door to door asking for votes. The basis of seeking votes is the development of the village. The excitement of development continues till the day of voting. There is hope for the development of villages in the minds of voters.
The development that voters have only heard about, but have not actually seen. It is generally seen that in the name of development of the village, the already constructed streets of the village are demolished and rebuilt, or bricks are dug out from one street and placed in another street. It is common to see that the Sarpanch and the Panch Most of the candidates contesting elections have some political party behind them.
These political parties make Sarpanch and Panch as per their wish. Even if a qualified person wants to contest elections, he cannot win unless he gets the support of a political leader or political party. Sometimes, due to political pressure, nomination papers of such eligible candidates are rejected.
These political leaders or the person representing a few people of the village is actually a puppet in their hands and they dance accordingly. In such a situation, talking about the development of the village is tantamount to deceiving oneself, but we are the ones responsible for all this, because the Sarpanch or Panch of the village is elected by our votes.
Today's voters have become more sophisticated and are more aware of their rights, but still some voters sell their vote to the wrong candidate for the sake of a few rupees. This greed is not limited to money laundering. Apart from this, the candidates standing in the election field also lure the voters with alcohol and many other types of intoxicants during the election days and these intoxicants sometimes become the cause of death of the voters. In many villages, gifts and clothes are also distributed to women to buy votes. In such a situation, candidates adopt all kinds of tactics to grab votes.
These small greeds take us and our village far away from the path of development and then we wait for the development of the village for five whole years. Still, nothing was damaged by the fallen berries. We can select eligible candidates by using our voting rights. Then the day is not far when the face of all the villages of Punjab will change and all the villages will be seen taking steps towards overall development. This development will not only be of the villages but of the entire Punjab and the entire country, but we will have to start it from ourselves.
As a voter, we all should pledge that we will cast our valuable vote to the deserving candidates without any fear or greed and will extend full cooperation to the administration in conducting the entire election process in a peaceful manner.