Dantewda: Around 50,000 tribals, associated with Salwa Judum, an anti-naxal movement, will be provided with special polling booths set up by the Election Commission in their camps to exercise their franchise tomorrow in Maoist-infested Dantewda district in Chhattisgarh.

For these uprooted residents, this election is of great significance as it is their only hope of returning to their homes. They are hopeful that the new democratic government will provide them security against the Maoists, with whom they fought tooth and nail and even faced family displacement.

The hapless tribals are determined to vote in large numbers as this is the first time when they will caste their votes away from their native areas.

These tribals are currently putting up in around two dozen government-run makeshift relief camps in the violence-torn districts.

The Election Commission has fixed special poll timings for the tribals beginning 7 am and concluding at 3 pm.

The threat perception is so hight in the Maoist-hit villages that none of the political parties campaigned inside the naxal strongholds.

The Salwa Judum activists and their families living in Kasouli camp guarded by Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) in the terror-terrain Dantewada rues that no politician visited their camp during the campaigning for the first phase of the poll on November 14,which ended yesterday.

Ironically, the manifestos released by political parties totally skipped the naxal issue.
Source : PTI