Itanagar, March 31: Residents of Sissen village in Arunachal Pradesh's East Siang district have a knack for registering protests through unique methods. After their "no road, no vote" stance last year, the villagers are now demanding that their village be excluded from India's political boundary.
Last year, residents of the 20 households in the village abstained from voting in the general and state elections. They had taken a "no road, no vote" stance in order to express their frustration over the absence of a road connecting it and other villages in the Nugong Banggo area.
Those wanting to visit the village have to drive for three hours from the district headquarters of Pasighat and cross a bamboo bridge hanging over the turbulent Siang river below before trekking up a hill for one-and-a-half kilometre. Almost a year later, not much has changed.
Recently, when district administration officials in Pasighat were occupied with the Arunachal Spring Carnival, the villagers handed over a memorandum demanding the village be given "freedom".
The memorandum carrying signatures of panchayat leaders, including the gaonburah, and other organisations stated that the village has been participating in elections since 1977, but is yet to see any development. "If our votes are valueless then we shall continue to boycott elections and any national activity," the memorandum reads.
"If the central and state governments continue their ignorance, then it is deemed fit to exclude Sissen from the political boundary of India and declare it a separate territory," it reads.
The bone of contention is the go-ahead given to the construction of a new road from the Yembung-Yemsing area to Tarak village, ignoring Sissen and the Nugong Banggo areas. Those leading the protest say the newly sanctioned road leads to "no man's land".
The president of Sissen Welfare Society and a gram panchayat member, Tajir Siram, blames legislators for the current state of affairs. "If the local MLA wants to run a dictatorship, it is up to him," he said.
Another villager and secretary of the Sissen Welfare Society, Taying Taki, said MLA Tapang Taloh, who is also the state education minister, "wants to keep the village underdeveloped to exercise political influence". Many also feel that the area has been constantly neglected over the years by other political leaders as well.
"Even before the state was formed, we have been neglected because we had never supported those who eventually won the election," says Karunath Pazing, an activist from the nearby Reiw village.
While work on the ambitious Trans-Arunachal Highway to connect 11 districts in the state# continues nearby, villagers feel that they have been neglected. The village has no healthcare facility and houses just one primary-level school which has only three students enrolled. Most villagers send their children to schools in nearby towns of Pasighat, Pangging or Boleng.
"Children studying in the village have no future," Taki said.
Despite these odds, the village has done well for itself by promoting locally-cultivated large cardamoms, oranges and gingers through community cultivation. Siram estimates that the village earned around Rs 20-25 lakh last year. "We expect more next year," he said.
Frustrated, the villagers have now written to the governor as well. Villagers have threatened that panchayat leaders, including the gaonburah, will resign if a road to connect the village is not sanctioned by April. They say the villagers want to be free of "made-in-India political leaders" and "it happens only in India work system".
"We might as well form the People's Republic of Sissen," said Siram.
