State and city take paid leave and trot off on an extended weekend as industry suffers

On October 1, acting on the advice of the Election Commission, the state labour commissioner Arvind Kumar issued orders to all commercial establishments to give their employees a paid holiday to ensure better voter turnout.

Yesterday, after most businesses reported a substantial drop in attendance and poor voter turnout of just 52 per cent in the city, angry corporates complained the resultant loss in business was crippling.

'Loss to economy'

Ravi Ghai, CMD, Intercontinental Hotel, reacted furiously, "Voting definitely does not warrant shutting business for an entire day.
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This is a loss to the economy and a loss to the exchequer." Sanjiv Saran Mehra, CEO, Saran Sports, called it, "a ridiculous decision, tantamount to coercing people to cast their vote."

Missing The Queue: The scene at a Worli poll booth yesterday. The voter turnout in Mumbai was just 52 per cent.

Ashwini Kakkar, vice-chairman, Mercury Travels, said authorities could have explored the middle path and added, "While we continue giving people more facilities to vote, we are actually seeing the polling per cent drop.

I would think an hour or two hours off is enough. An innovative way may be to extend the voting hours to 10 pm, which would cost less to the nation than a full-day closure."

'Loss in crores'

Dinyar Jamshedji, CMD, Noble Paints, added, "I kept my factory and office open yesterday and workers took time off to vote. But most people have already taken Monday off, and gone away on holiday. This means a loss in crores."

There are nearly 5.5 lakh shops and establishments in Mumbai and the suburbs. With Diwali a few days on, sales are brisk and sources say each shop suffered an estimated loss of Rs 1,000 for four hours.

Add salaries of people who did not turn up on an average, a shop attendant earns between Rs 150 and Rs 200 per day with up to 10 attendants in a shop.

"When you add up the figures across the industry, it's a loss of Rs 100 crore, at least! And at the end, you have a low voter turnout," said Viren Shah, president, Federation of Retail Traders and Welfare Association.

Sushil Jiwarajka, chairman, Western Regional Council, FICCI, said, "Most hotels in Lonavala and Khandala were packed.

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