NCC-CL demands postal ballot for migrants
He continued that the guest workers have been travelling to their native place to vote
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CHENNAI: Amidst the growing contention over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, which led to the exclusion of around 35 migrant workers, the National Campaign Committee-Construction Labour (NCC-CL) urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to establish a system to enable migrant workers to exercise their franchise through postal ballot.
Migrants from Bihar to Punjab for agricultural work and to many southern states, including Tamil Nadu and Kerala, for construction and other unorganised labour have increased in recent years due to a shortfall in Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) allocation and distress conditions, the coordinator of the committee Subhash Bhatnagar said in the letter to the commission.
He continued that the guest workers have been travelling to their native place to vote
Emphasising the importance of the long-pending demand for postal votes for the migrants, who never miss an opportunity to vote in the general elections and exercise their democratic rights, the committee said they have been demanding this for over a decade.
“We are shocked at the proposals of the removal of the names of migrants from the voting list in Bihar under SIR, instead of providing them the postal vote rights as demanded by workers,” he said.
The Committee demanded the ECI to evolve a policy and implementation mechanism for postal ballots for the migrant labourers, he said and added that until the Commission comes up with such a robust system, it should maintain the existing electoral lists.
