Many workers of the textile industry in Surat were deprived of the opportunity to cast their votes for the civic body elections held recently.

Elections to the 120 seats in 30 wards of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) were held on Sunday 21.

President of South Gujarat Textile Processing Association Jitubhai Vakhariya said that they did not get any instruction from the district administration regarding keeping the business close for the election.

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Amongst the centres that functioned, some of the factory owners allowed their labourers to go for voting.

They had appealed to the dyeing and printing mills to keep their factories shut but most of them were open.

Surat consists of around 340 dyeing and printing mills, and over 35,000 power loom factories.

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Labour union leader Kamran Usmani said, “The administration should have instructed the industries association to keep their factories closed on the day of the election for the workers to vote.”

The workers of the diamond industry were able to vote since Sundays are holidays.