Voters in fringe areas of Sambhajinagar hope for basic amenities

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Voters from Satara-Deolali, Mitma and other fringe areas of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city cast their votes on Thursday amid a struggle for tap water, drainage lines and internal roads.With basic amenities still a distant dream despite being a part of municipal limits for the past decade, voters said they hope their issues will be addressed post-polls.Kamalkishor Purohit, a resident of the Satara area, said he did not feel like living within municipal limits despite the merger of his area into municipal limits in 2016. "The past elections did not revolve our basic issues. Still, we cast our votes hoping that the new term of the local civic body would see an end to our daily ordeal," he said.Earlier, a section of voters from fringe areas had confronted poll candidates during the campaigning over the absence of basic amenities for many years.Vijay Kulkarni, a resident of Deolai, said, "This will be my last election as a voter if the elected representatives fail to address our issues over the next five years. I will not go to the polling booth even to choose the NOTA option if we continue to suffer after five years," he said.Fringe areas, along with certain city areas, still did not have tap water. Scores of residents have pinned their hopes on the Rs 2,740 crore new water supply project, which has missed multiple deadlines, with no concrete assurance from authorities on when the project would get fully commissioned.