CHENNAI: A day ahead of the election, many voters still hadn’t received their booth slips in Chennai and its suburbs. While officials promised they will complete distribution by 6 pm on Friday, numerous residents were still clueless about where to vote.
“Around 90 per cent of residents in our street did not receive their booth slips. During the last local body elections in 2011, we got slips two days in advance. If the booth is far, we have to make travel arrangements. We appealed to the Chennai corporation officials numerous times and there was no response,” said V Jayaraman, president, T Nagar Welfare Residents Association.
Similarly, Sundaresan Nagarajan of Tambaram said: “Our booths were shifted after the last elections. The public is still clueless about when they will get their booth slips. Half of the residents in the area got it, while the other half did not,” he said.
However, activists say this should not be the reason for not voting. “Residents must understand they can vote without a booth slip. Officials in any booth will guide them. The public must exercise their right, especially for the civic polls as it centres around issues that directly affect them,” said P Raghunath, an activist from Perambur.
Chennai corporation officials claimed they had distributed booth slips to 85.57 per cent of the eligible population. When contacted, a senior official from the civic body said, “We have contacted 61,50,474 out of 61,69,843 voters. Some of them have not answered despite two or three attempts. We have distributed 52,79,912 slips so far.”