Koyambedu market to shut shop on election day

we called one of them to submit the videos, he peremptorily said he could not come immediately and asked us to contact another person. They kept on passing the buck, making us anxious...”

Police officials, who are part of the teams, too, lament that inexperienced youths are being assigned the jobs. “They don’t come with their identity cards to the spot. The worst experience was when some of these boys focused [the camera] on a woman inside a car, instead of the dashboard. We have to constantly tell the videographer what they should do,” said an officer.

According to a senior official of the Greater Chennai Corporation, a strict warning was issued to the vendor last week when complaints surfaced. “The vendor was instructed not to involve anyone under the age of 18 in this work, and to take complete videos and not just photos.”

(With inputs from Aishwaryaa R.)

In view of the Lok Sabha election, shops at the Koyambedu market will remain closed on April 19. The Chennai Fruits Agents Association has announced a holiday for the shops on the polling day to enable traders and labourers to cast their vote.

A press release said this was the first time that the wholesale fruits market would be shut on a polling day.

The wholesale vegetable and food grains market had earlier announced that it would remain closed.

S. Srinivasan, president of the association, said that the fruit market had been functioning on election days since it moved to Koyambedu in 1996.

Hiatus timing

The market will stop receiving truck loads on the evening of April 18 and resume functioning after 6 p.m. the following day.