Lok Sabha polls 2014: Kashi’s fishermen, boatmen to press NOTA in Varanasi polls

VARANASI: In perhaps the first such communitarian step ever, close to 1.5 lakh of Varanasi's boatmen, fishermen and Binds have decided to exercise 'None of the Above (NOTA)' option during the high stakes polling on May 12, which will witness a contest between BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal and Congress's Ajay Rai. The decision was taken by the Bind panchayat held 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 - Varanasi's outskirts. "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. Apart from this, they also seek restriction on boating only after Ganga's water level crosses the danger mark, involvement of boatmen in Ganga cleaning projects, license for motorboat operation, withdrawal of restriction on fishing in the Ganga.

"Even 65 years after independence, no government has taken note of our plight. Promises are doled out during elections only to be forgotten," Nishad said, adding that Varanasi's boatmen and fisherman have an age-old tradition of service to society and that they also participated in the country's freedom struggle.