District collector urges industrial bodies to declare paid holiday on voting day

VADODARA: The district administration has decided to step up efforts to reach out to voters under the government's Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) ahead of the assembly polls. The administration has made four categories to reach out to the voters in urban and rural areas. District collector Vinod Rao also said that they would act strictly against employers who don't extend paid holidays to the employees on the poll day.
"Under SVEEP, we have studied voting patterns and ascertained who votes less and why the voting is less in some segments. We have divided voters into four categories of youth, government employees, industrial workers and urban middle class," Rao said.
The administration has chalked out different programmes for all the four categories. "We are using FM radio as a medium to appeal to the youth along with marathon. We will also use the social media platform too. For government employees, we have introduced postal ballot to enable them to vote while on duty. I will personally appeal government employees to vote," Rao added.
For industrial workers, Rao has decided to use the Representation of People's Act strictly and appealed to industries to announce paid holiday on the polling day. Rao said that if he gets complaint that any voter wasn't given paid holiday to vote, he would take strict action against the employer. A meeting with industrial bodies too has been organized on December 6 to sensitize them.
In rural areas, the administration would seek help of Sakhi Mandals to reach out to women voters who turn out less to cast their ballot in comparison to men. The milk collection centers would also be used to reach out to voters in rural areas.