Construction work slows down with labourers leaving to caste votes

Bangalore, April 14: With elections being held in different places across India, construction activities in Bangalore have slowed down as worker have gone to their native places to exercise their voting rights.

There has been a shortage of labourers in the city with most of them gone to their home towns to vote in the Lok Sabha elections 2014. Polling in 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State will be on April 17.

Bangalore's construction work highly depends on labourers from North Karnataka districts, and from Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

"Workers, especially those from North Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, who had gone home before Ugadi have not returned. Same is the case with those who went home for Ramanavami," said M. Ramesh, a senior member of the Builders' Association of India to The Hindu.

Polling in 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State will be on April 17

Apart from construction workers, those engaged in tile laying, carpentry and such other work in the city have also gone back to the native places to participate in the Lok Sabha elections.

The agents, who bring the construction workers to Bangalore, play an important role during elections. The political parties have tapped on the agent networks to get the voters back to the villages to cast their votes.

OneIndia News