By IANS,
Bangalore : After casting his vote early in the morning, septuagenarian Ramesh Shankar, a retired government employee in India’s tech hub Bangalore is hoping that elected representatives of the 15th Lok Sabha elections will try to make the city a safe haven for the elderly.
“Of late, Bangalore has seen several crimes against elderly people, including murders. It is sad that not a single party has talked about the issue in their manifestoes,” Shankar, a resident of middle-class dominated Malleshwaram in North Bangalore constituency, told IANS.
“However, I have voted for the candidate, who had come to our locality and assured that protection of elderly against any crime will be a prime issue in his agenda of works, if he is voted to power,” Shankar added.
Bangalore during the first four month of the year has witnessed six cases of murders of elderly people, according to police.
Apart from increasing threat to their life, the elderly in Bangalore are also a harassed lot, according to 1090, a special helpline service run for elderly people in the city by Nightingales Medical Trust.
On an average, the trust registers 70 cases of harassment of various nature against the elderly in the city in a month.
The concerns of Geetha P., 25, an employee with a travel agent in Jayanagar are different from those of Shankar. Geetha, whose constituency is South Bangalore, voted to make Bangalore a safe place for women and free from moral policing.
“I have voted to make Bangalore a safe place for women, as more and more of them are coming under attack by hooligans in the name of moral policing. The name of Bangalore as one of India’s most advanced places has come under scrutiny after these attacks,” said Geetha, as she refused to divulge the name of the candidate for whom she voted.
Bangalore made headlines after a spate of attacks on women by the ‘moral police’ brigade. Around 10 cases of attack on women have been reported in Bangalore since Feb 17.
Jeevana Kumar, 28, a former BPO employee who has lost his job recently made it a point to vote to help the country revive from the effects of global economic recession.
“I have lost my job recently. I want the new government to take immediate steps to help India revive its economy. Thus I voted for the party which has a clear idea of pepping up the sluggish economy and improve the employment scenario, which currently is bleak,” said Kumar.
Bangalore, hailed as India’s Silicon Valley, could be the worst affected in terms of job loss, following the global economic slowdown.
Out of 28 Lok Sabha constituencies of Karnataka, 17 went to polls Thursday, which included Bangalore South, Bangalore North and Bangalore Central. The remaining 11 are schedule to go to polls April 30.
The number of voters in Bangalore’s three Lok Sabha constituencies stands at around 5.9 million, according to election authorities.