Shops open

To encourage the public to cast their votes, election officials conducted very many programmes from the day the poll dates were announced.

As the D-day came closer, officials appealed to shops and business establishments, private and commercial undertakings to declare the polling day, a holiday with wages so that the employees could exercise their democratic right. Some organisations had given two-to-three hours permission for the purpose.

However, leave alone restaurants, shops and other commercial establishments functioned today as usual in the peripheries. An official in the Department of Labour said they had taken stock of such violators and claimed that action was being initiated.