The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will prosecute 280 establishments who denied holiday to their staff to cast their vote on October 15.

On Wednesday, the civic body’s Shop and Establishment department visited 2,706 places across the city and found that 151 shops in the island city and 129 shops in the suburbs had violated the Election Commission’s (EC) order of offering a paid holiday to their employees on election day.

The BMC has issued notices to 25 shops in High Street Phoenix at Lower Parel for not giving staff members a holiday on election day. File pic

Out of these 280 cases, 82 are complaints made by employees of various shops and commercial establishments who were denied the holiday.

Apart from this, the municipal body found that 2,426 shops and establishment had given permission to their staff to take time off from their schedule and cast their vote.

The BMC found that major companies such as the TCS office in Andheri, Citibank office in Goregaon and commercial establishments such as High Street Phoenix in Lower Parel and Westland Hotel in Fort had flouted the rule.

It had issued notices to 25 shops at High Street Phoenix. “We deployed our team to find out whether the EC’s order had been followed.

The team also visited the places from where we had received complaints,” said Chief Inspector of Shops and Establishment, GD Goswami. The civic body has issued notices to these places under the Shops and Establishment act, 1949, Sections 18 and 18(1) of the Indian Penal Code, which categorically states that shops and establishments should be shut when a holiday is declared.

“The owners of these shops and establishments will be taken to the City Civil Court that will decide whether a fine should be imposed on them or should they be sentenced to a jail term,” added Gosavi.

Source : Sachin Murdeshwar