azamgarhballia once a part of the thriving koshala kingdom which boasted of developed social fabric the districts of azamgarh deoria and ballia today paint a rather gloomy picture as development at these places is a farfetched truth with barely two days left for voting for the second phase of up election february 11 leaders from various political parties are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that they reap the maximum harvest from the region however for the common voterswho hailing from poor and underprivileged classes it is hard to believe that they are going to see any magic after the electionreciting a couplet triloki prasad an elderly and a resident of deoria says kou nrip hou humein kaa haani it hardly makes any difference to us if anyone becomes the king for triloki a daily wage earner elections come and go but people like him do not see any improvement in their lives however he feels that changes are coming in urban areas such as more pucca buildings development of markets and increase in number of automobiles however the problems particularly the price rise have made the life miserable according to official records of the deoria district historical artefacts sculptures coins bricks temples found at various places show that there was a developed and organised society in ancient timestoday a road journey of over 90km from azamgarh to deoria proves to be a nightmare for the commutershowever the road is being widened the farming is the main occupation and sugarcane the main cropfor irrigation there is a network of 401kmlong canals and 856 government tube wells for a population of 3098637 2011 census there are 10 hospitals 7 community health centres and 81 primary health centres in the district to take care of health needs of people educational facilities include 2074 primary schools 631 upper primary schools 396 high schools 36 colleges 10 pg colleges and 4 itis in 2007 assembly election four out of seven seats in the district went to samajwadi party and three went to bahujan samaj party the people of baagi ballia revolutionary ballia who valiantly fought against british during 1857 revolution and freedom struggle are today fighting against all odds the district had flourished in ancient timethe excavations carried out by the bhu brought to light relics of the black and red ware civilization 14501200 bc at various sites indicating that the area enjoyed settled life and civilisation from early time ballia itself is supposed to have derived its name from valmiki the great sage who is said to have dwelt here for some time teenaged girls could be seen pulling a trolley rickshaw or making cow dung cakes in this part of eastern up they girls are doing all these things only to support their families a girl pulling trolley rickshaw on azamgarhballia road near nagara in ballia district went shy when asked why she was doing it obviously it was financial compulsion that led her and many others like her to opt for