Talukdar, 55, of Medai Chulaha village lives in a makeshift hut along the highway, though he owns a hectare of land.
Like Talukdar, there are dozens of other families living as landless labourers despite owning land.
“I live along the road with my family as we don’t know when we will get back our land,” said Talukdar.
- Total voters: 15,50,201
- Male: 8,38,148
- Female: 7,12,053
According to him, floods in Sharda river takes away the land compelling the people of over 300 villages. “It happens every year but is hardly an election issue,” he said.
Kalu, another villager from Susurwa, also lives in a makeshift hut with his wife and seven children.
“We are waiting for the administration to give us some other land or compensation as we lost it during floods last year. But no one from the administration or political party took heed of our problem,” he said.
He works as a daily labour but gets only 3-4 days of work in a week.
Dominated by Kurmi voters, issues change as people share their concerns with four MPs of the region – Sitapur, Misrikh, Dhaurahra and Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituencies.
The issue of floods taking away the land has been there for the last 50 years and affects the lives of 30,000-odd voters but remains unresolved even today.
“A simple solution like making temporary bund before rains can help but is not done,” Utkarsh Awasthi, village pradhan of Basantapur, said.
- BJP: Rajesh Verma
- SP-BSP alliance: Nakul Dubey
- Congress: Kaiser Jahan
Most of the villages that have been affected till now are in Kashipur, Mallahpur, Pakariapurwa, Behta and Mehmudabad blocks. “The solution is a permanent bund. A proposal was made in 2012 but nothing was done,” said Awasthi.
Sitapur, connected to Lucknow (80 kilometres) and Lakhimpur Kheri (45 kilometres) has good connecting roads but the people still do not have ample opportunities.
“Voting in this election will reflect what people have got from the leaders and what they expect,” said Jyoti, a first-time voter from Sitapur.
BJP’s Rajesh Verma is facing challenge from the Nakul Dubey of the SP-BSP alliance and Kaisar Jahan of the Congress.
The youngsters of Kamlapur near Sidhauli on Lucknow-Sitapur road are worried for jobs.
“Government schemes have reached here but what we need is job opportunity,” said Triloki, a villager.
“Farmers get customers for their produce in local market but the price they get is not enough to sustain a good life,” said Munna, a trader at the local market in Kamlapur.
Sitapur constituency shares parliamentary segments with four different Lok Sabha seats. The Sitapur seat constitutes of Biswan, Sitapur Sadar, Mehmudabad, Laharpur and Seuta assembly segments. Two other assembly seats, Maholi and Hargaon of Sitapur, are part of Dhaurahra while Sidhauli falls in Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituency. Another Lok Sabha seat Misrikh has Misrikh assembly seat which is also a part of Sitapur.
The population of Sitapur is 44,83,992, including 23,75,264 males and 21,08,728 females. The district has one of the poorest sex ratio of 888 per 1000 males and the literacy rate is 61.12.
Sitapur has been a Lok Sabha seat since 1952 and has elected BSP candidate twice in 2004 and 2009 and then a BJP candidate in 2014.
VILLAGES STILL REMEMBER FERAL DOG HORROR
Sitapur: Children of Jamiyadpur village are not allowed to move out alone, particularly during the afternoon, when the roads are deserted. They do not face the threat of being kidnapped but the parents are gripped by the fear of feral dogs.
Jamiyadpur village of Sitapur borders Khairabad, Taimbur and several other villages where over a dozen children had been allegedly killed by feral dogs a year ago.
This village also has a newly-constructed trauma centre, one of the 40 set up across the state, but there are no doctors.
“Had this been started when the incidents started in November 2017, many lives could have been saved,” said a villager.
“Though no more cases are being reported, the memories of children who were killed still haunt us. We wish to keep our children safe, particularly those below 10 years of age,” said Shanti, a mother of two.
The children who were attacked last year were between 7 and 13 years of age. Residents of at least 10 villages still remain alert.
First Published: May 04, 2019 13:43 IST
