Ashok Das is a jewellery worker from Kolkata, has been living here for the last 18 years. The 49-year-old has a ration card and a voter ID here. He got the voter ID six years ago but has not cast his vote here so far.
This time however, he plans to head to the poll booth and has been encouraging his friends and relatives in the city to enrol themselves in the voters’ list.
However, Devaraj from Jharkhand — who has been working in a small-scale unit here for the past three years — does not want to cast his vote here. His family, he says, is back home.
According to mapping done by the government about a year ago, there are 1.2 lakh migrant workers in Coimbatore district employed in different sectors.
Efforts have been taken this year to enrol these workers too in the electoral list here.
Workers from other States who are now working here need an ID proof to get basic amenities or even a mobile SIM card. Hence, many of them are on the voters’ list, says an election official.
“Though exact numbers are not available, we know that a lot of north Indian workers enrolled this year.”
Of the 30,000 workers in organised plantations in the State, 5,000 are workers from other States. There are many among them who have been here for more than 10 years.
“We did not have special camps to enrol migrant workers as they do not reside in specific areas. But, we had requested all industrial associations to ask their members to ensure 100 per cent enrollment of their workers,” says the poll official.
( With additional reporting by Sonia Jain )
