HC notice to ECI on lack of buses for polls

Chennai: A Valasaravakkam resident moved Madras high court seeking formation of a commission to investigate the lack of transport facilities for voters to travel to home towns and cast votes in the recently concluded election.The petitioner, Devadas Gandhi Wilson, alleged many voters were unable to cast votes due to inadequate bus services. Admitting the plea on Wednesday, the vacation bench of Justice S Sounder and Justice P B Balaji has directed ECI to file their response and adjourned the hearing to June.Wilson stated that ballot papers for postal voting were not sent to govt employees on time, resulting in many of them being unable to cast postal votes. He said that in Chennai district, of 52,047 postal votes, only 32,447 were cast, leaving around 17,000 votes unrecorded. "Failure to provide adequate transport for voters prevented the state from achieving 100% percent voter turnout," he alleged.