BERHAMPORE : One look at their diseased hands and feet and the fact that the country has been Independent for the last 60 years seems doubtful. Women in some villages of Murshidabad are doomed to a life without a family of their own, as no one will marry them. Even gram panchayat candidates here have sores on their hands and feet. They go about campaigning while trying in vain to ignore painful sores in their hands and feet, a continuous burning sensation, nausea and fever that refuses to go away. The drinking water they draw from their tube wells is laced with a silent killer ~ arsenic. The CPI-M candidate for this year's poll for Sagarpara gram panchayat (GP), Mr Kanai Mondal is himself affected by arsenic poisoning. He spared neither the Congress-run zilla parishad nor the CPI-M-led Left Front state government for his village folks' suffering. "Arsenic poisoning is a huge problem here. Even I have been affected. People here have been sufferers for the last so many years; it's time the government took some concrete measures,' Mr Mondal said. As the panchayat poll nears in Narsinghapur and Nodapara villages under Sagarpara gram panchayat of Jalangi block, none of the villagers has much hope from their leaders, once they come to power, as year after year, they have heard promises no one has fulfilled. Even members of the outgoing gram panchayat have been affected by the poisonous water drawn from tube wells here. Outgoing member of gram panchayat, Mr Nirshingha Kumar Sarkar of the CPI-M, said: "I do not know whether water from the government tube wells here has been checked for contamination. Some people from this village have died from acute poisoning. The public voted us to power, and we have tried our best to help, but arsenic is still present in the water drawn from the tube wells here.' He added that several other members of the outgoing gram panchayat are arsenic-affected. In the name of development work, essential to garner votes before the election, government officials have dumped earth by the side of the road in Nodapara village. The attempt to build roads in the village has led to a water connection being severed ~ a connection that used to supply filtered water free from arsenic from the nearby river Ganga. Mr Mahadeb Das, a resident of Nodapara village, complains of nausea, fever, aches and pains a burning sensation in his skin that he lives with day in day out. "I still drink water from the tube well; it's water hasn't been checked yet,' Mr Das said. A strange white, powdery material comes out from the nails of villagers here. "This is an indication of arsenic poisoning. Almost everyone here is affected by some measure of arsenic poisoning,' said Mr Pritish Chandra Sarkar, Trinamul Congress candidate for Sagarpara GP.