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Lakhs of non-locals in Kashmir didn't vote! 'No one told us how to cast ballot' 5/4/2014 12:02:52 AM Early Times Report Srinagar, May 3: With lakhs of laborers hailing mostly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh working in Kashmir in different sectors, little was done to facilitate their participation in elections being held across India. Reports maintained that the non-locals earning their livelihood in Kashmir seem least interested in casting their votes and in electing representatives of their choice. When asked for the reason, many of the labourers said that there was no facility available for them to cast their votes nor were they in a position to reach their respective home states to exercise their right. Mohammad Shaban, who has been working in Kashmir since 1996 as a painter tsaid he had no resources so that he could go to his native place that too only for the purpose of voting. "I am not interested in voting at least when it costs you thousands of bucks to reach home and press the button." Another non-local from UP namely Naushad who works in Srinagar's old city as the barber stated that government should have facilitated the voting of the labourers who work outside their native places. "It is for the first time that you are asking us about this issue. It wasn't in our minds even." A large number of non-locals working in Kashmir are mostly doing the jobs as the daily wages in the private sector. They work as masons, carpenters, painters, barbers and labourers. Experts when asked over the issue stated that the trend is growing across the India when the people leave their native places and work in different parts of the country. It was also maintained that migration has become the part of the socio- economic life in India where a class has emerged that cannot vote. The remedial measures were suggested that like the armed forces stationed in Kashmir cast their votes through the postal ballots, the same should have been adopted for the people working far from their places.   Share This News with Your Friends on Social Network     Comment on this Story

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