Kasaragod: The 1000-odd voters of Mayyicha village in Kasaragod's Trikaripur assembly segment queued up before a makeshift tent to cast their votes in the Lok Sabha polls on Friday.
The Election Commission pitched the tent at Mayyicha because the only school in the village was demolished two years ago, and the government has not yet built a new one.
Residents said the five-room Government Lower Primary School became unsafe after its wall started crumbling and its roof leaked.
After the building was demolished, the 72 students of the school from pre-primary to class 4 were shifted to the auditorium of Bhagavathi temple in the neighbourhood. On March 18 and 19, when there was a festival in the temple, the school was shifted to a teacher's house.
A teacher said the government sanctioned Rs 2.99 crore for a new building on March 15 but has not yet called for tender.
According to residents, Chief Electoral Officer and Collector Inbasekar K visited Mayyicha and considered setting up the polling station at the temple auditorium but gave up the idea after after he was told that it may inconvenience female voters.
The polling station has 1,051 voters, including 543 female voters and 508 male voters. At 6.30 pm, around 200 voters were still in the queue before the tent.
