High travel costs keep many people away, Papon pitches for remote voting

Guwahati: With travel costs soaring, many Assam voters living outside the state missed Thursday’s polling, prompting singer Angarag Mahanta, popularly known as Papon, to call for a remote voting system using biometric or fingerprint scanning.

After casting his vote at the AIDC polling booth in the Zoo Road area of Guwahati, Papon said, “I don’t miss voting, but it has become difficult now because ticket prices have become so high. I have to do a lot of travelling. It’s not possible to bring the family to vote; it’s not possible for everyone.”





He said many may have been unable to vote because of high ticket prices.

“Some kind of remote voting system in India, like using biometric or fingerprint scanning, if introduced in future, would be helpful so that people who are away for work can still exercise their franchise,” he suggested.

For many, travelling home by air or road from workplaces far away turned into an expensive exercise this election.

Ellora Goswami, who lives in North Goa, said she could not travel to Guwahati to vote because of steep airfares despite wanting to exercise her franchise.

“The flight fare increased abnormally after the West Asia conflict, making it difficult for people living away from home to go and vote. I continued checking if the flight fare drops till Wednesday. However, I found flight fare around Rs 32,000-Rs 35,000 from Goa to Guwahati immediately after the West Asia conflict. I did not book a ticket then as I had a doubt that the fare might go up more due to the West Asia conflict. That exactly happened. Flight ticket price went upto over Rs 47,000 on Wednesday, a day before the polls in Assam,” she said.

Goswami and her husband, Dipak Baishya, have been running a restaurant in Goa for about 20 years. Both are enrolled in the Dispur assembly constituency.

“We both are enrolled in Dispur assembly constituency. Managing one ticket at such a high cost became difficult for us. Eventually, we cannot go to vote,” she added.

She said the last time she booked a last-minute ticket from Goa to Guwahati in 2015, it cost Rs 16,000, then the highest fare she had seen.

Their restaurant has remained shut for about three weeks following the LPG crisis linked to the West Asia conflict.

Goswami also backed the idea of remote voting for people living away from their native places so that no vote goes uncast.

She said train travel takes longer and raises hygiene and security concerns, making it an option only in exceptional circumstances.

Runjun Das wrote on Facebook that her two children, who live outside Assam, could not return to vote because of high airfares.
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