Himachal Pradesh's 'oldest voter' dies waiting for village link road, electricity

MANALI: The “oldest voter’ in Himachal Pradesh died at her home at Shakti village in Kullu district on Saturday evening, with her bucket list remaining unfulfilled. Shari Devi, who claimed to be 110 years old even though some official records showed her age as 114, wanted to see electricity and road connectivity in her remote village.
Shari had made her wish evident during the Lok Sabha polls on May 19 this year when she sang a folk song dedicated to the polls at the polling booth.She had also revealed that it irked her when she missed exercising her franchise as her village lacked road connectivity and she could not make it to the polling booth.
‘She wanted to travel in a bus from village’
Shakti village of Gadaparli panchayat in Banjar subdivision is one of the most remote villages of Himachal Pradesh and can be approached only after a 20-km steep trek. No political leader has attempted to reach Shakti and Maror areas of Kullu to listen to the residents’ grievances. However, not one to give up easily, Shari had sent a message to officials through villagers that the locals wanted only two things to lead a more advanced lifestyle — electricity and road connectivity “She could not see electricity in her house in her lifetime. She wanted to travel in a bus from right inside the village,” said Shari’s nephew Lagan Rana, who is a government school peon at Deoridhar in Sainj valley. His brother, who is also a peon at Government Primary School, Shakti, used to take care of Shari after her husband Kumat Ram and only daughter died many years back.
Now, the locals want a school or a health centre in the village named after Shari. They said building a road to the village and laying of power transmission lines would be a real tribute to her. There is no health centre in the area and patients have to be carried in palanquins to reach the nearest road over 20 km away. Also, children from the village are forced to migrate to lower areas in Sainj valley to pursue studies after primary classes.
Officials claim as Shakti, Maror and Shugada villages lie inside the Great Himalayan National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site, they have difficulty in providing electricity and road connectivity. A few years back, electricity cables were being laid to these villages but work had to be stopped due to a legal hurdle.