Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on April 14, 2011:
CHENNAI: The usual hustle and bustle on Chennai’s arterial roads, including the busy Mount Road and Inner Ring Road, was missing on Wednesday as general public, perhaps anticipating a repeat of 2006 poll violence, preferred to stay indoors after exercising their democratic rights.
Apart from the movement of officials and vehicles on election duty, there were hardly any activity on the city roads.The scene was no different in suburban areas such as Pallavaram, Tambaram, East Coast Road and Old Mahabalipuram Road in south Chennai and Ambattur, Madhavaram and Tiruvotriyur in north Chennai, where very few vehicles were found plying.The bandh-like situation on roads was mainly due to the Election Commission’s diktat to State government and private entities to announce a compulsory holiday for all their staff to exercise their democratic rights.Till last elections, there has been no official holiday on polling day and both government and private sector employees were allowed to visit polling booths to cast their votes after getting due permission from their higher-ups.Besides, the cancellation of movie shows in theatre complexes and closure of big shopping malls in the city also forced youth to remain inside their homes.However, the deserted look on roads started diminishing gradually closer to 5 pm as reports of a peaceful and incident-free poll were reported.
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