Baramulla, Nov 17: An elderly and ailing woman – 101-years-old Roshi Begium — wife of Mohammad Gazi, trudged half a kilometre to cast her vote at a polling station in Razerwani area of Uri in north kashmir’s Baramulla district on Saturday in the first phase of the panchayat elections.
She was assisted by her son and daughter to visit the polling booth set up at Government Middle School Rajarwani along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway.
Defying cold and boycott calls, she said she cast her vote in hope to see an end to her abject poverty.
In the same area, looking excited and overwhelmed, a young girl Nazia Bano also stood in a long queue outside polling station number 7 to exercise her franchise.
“I am casting my vote for the first time. I am excited to elect Panch and Sarpanch for my village,” said Nazia in fluent Urdu with Pahari accent.
She said she had read about right to vote and elections in her political science subject, but today she was herself part of the poll process.
“I repose my faith in a candidate and if he gets elected, I will make him accountable and make sure he works for the development of my frontier village,” the young girl said.
“I want my village to get power, drinking water and health-care facilities,” she said.
Interestingly her’s was the last vote in Ward number 6, where 143 votes were polled out of a total of 164.
