CHENNAI: Many voters living in the western suburbs of the city and working in the city limits had to take half a day leave to exercise their franchise as they did not get a holiday on Wednesday.It was declared a holiday in the city on Monday. Hence, many voters, who lived outside the city limits but worked in Chennai, enjoyed the holiday on that day. But they had to sacrifice half a day on Wednesday when their area faced polling, as the companies they were employed in are located in the city limits where polling was already over. “I took half a day leave as I wanted to vote. I did have holiday on Monday when my company did not work as it was polling in the city. I would have been happy had the government announced leave on both days, as there are many people like me in suburban areas who work in the city,” said Ranjith (31), a bank staff of Thirumullaivoyal, who came with his wife Geetha to vote.Losing pay for half a day and standing in long winding queues for hours together to cast a vote did not deter the spirit of the voters. “This is definitely our duty and taking leave does not matter for us,” said Sathya (33) of Kalaignar Nagar, who worked in the sales department of a well-known computer dealer at Ashok Nagar.But for software engineer Sarika (24) also from Thirumullaivoyal who worked in a popular IT company in Guindy, it was a make or break situation she did not want to miss. “I took permission to come to work in the afternoon as this is one chance where as a citizen I can bring change in society and I didn’t want to miss it,” she said.But, there were also voters working in city limits, who did enjoy a holiday on Wednesday as their companies gave them a choice. Nitish (26), an IT employee at Ambattur, was given holiday as he had to cast his vote. “Our company gave us an option to take leave on one of the two days of polling. But the rest of them would be working,” he said.
Comments
0 comment