Denied leave, Mettupalayam TNSTC staff may lose vote

The reason, they claim is that they were unaware of the postal voting provision given to them by the Election Commission. Tamil Nadu Transport Uniformed Employees Union deputy general secretary KP Sakthivel claimed that they were not informed in prior by the department officials on the provision to cast ballot votes.

“As there was no prior intimation, we missed to exercise our franchise through the postal ballot system within the stipulated time. Hence we sought leave to cast our vote by visiting our native home towns. However, the leave was denied and was asked to report to duty on the polling day. So, many of us may not be able to exercise our voting rights,” he added.

When queried, the officials however clarified that none of the employee’s evinced interest in exercising their rights through postal ballots, when they were issued with applications given by the Revenue Department. “They have been making baseless allegations as none of the 650 workers in Mettupalayam branch came forth to cast their vote through postal ballot, when they were handed over the applications. The staff cannot be given leave as they had to operate buses for the convenience of the public to travel to cast their franchise on the polling day,” said an official.