If you are a Telugu speaking guy, you might most probably be a Telanganite or an Andhra and have one identity card. But can you imagine, some citizens in Andhra-Maharashtra border and Andhra-Odisha border avail the double benefits from both States. Apart from availing double benefits, they also exercise their right to vote in both the states.
40-odd small villages having around 4,000 voters on the border of Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts and Odisha’s Ganjam and Koraput districts have exercised their right to vote in both AP & Odisha. About 3,000 voters living in the villages of Andhra-Maharashtra border too had the double voting benefit. Same is the case for Telangana-Maharashtra border residents.
The reasons behind are simple. The border disputes in which two states claim for the possession of the border villages and hence the villagers end up getting identity cards, ration cards etc from both the states. Even the luring government schemes like ‘Indira Awas Yojana’ and freebies are also a reason why the villagers of these border areas grew smart enough to avail the benefits of both regions.
Availing the benefits of both the states is one thing but trying to exercise the right to vote twice is something a crime in the eyes of law. In the recent general elections, the people of these border regions got inked twice because the election dates also fell on different days and they had different fingers inked for different states. As long as the border issues between two states remain unresolved, to put a check on availing double benefits or double voting is a distant myth.
