Assembly Elections: IT cos should declare paid holiday for employees on polling day, says Telangana CEO

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar on Thursday said Information Technology companies here have been asked to provide paid holiday to employees on December 7, polling day.

He convened a meeting with the CEO's of IT/ITES companies and state government officials to discuss the election day and clarifications regarding the operations of IT companies on the day at Cyberabad Police Commissionerate here.

"They say that the IT industry here follow the timings and holidays of US, Europe and Australia. Some mission critical projects may suffer in terms of meeting deadlines," Kumar told reporters.

"But I told them we will issue orders declaring December 7 as paid holiday in the entire state including IT industry.

That is a directive of the Election Commission and that is not negotiable," he said.

The IT companies would have to work out a "via-media" solution for employees to vote, he said adding critical work does not suffer.

To a query, he said the Income Tax department had seized Rs 51 lakh from the residence of a relative of P Narender Reddy, TRS candidate contesting from Kodangal.

Kumar said the I-T department was investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, the CEO launched an app on both android and iOS called "Naa Vote" ( My Vote), which is designed to aid the citizen to participate better in the forthcoming Assembly election.

The app helps voters search for EPIC ( Electoral Photo Id card) number and name of the polling station, route to reach polling station, nearest station or bus stop and request for pick up if the voter is a PwD ( persons with disabilities) voter.