The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Role switch: printer becomes BSP candidate

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Sunday, Apr 27, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Role switch: printer becomes BSP candidate

M. Raghuram

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Changing track: R. Murugan, BSP candidate, at his studio in Bangalore. The high-tech machines which print banners lie idle now after the EC’s strictures.

BANGALORE: In the last elections, he printed banners and made buntings for candidates. This time round R. Murugan finds himself catapulted into a new role. The printer from Gandhinagar, who has been in business for the last 25 years, is now a candidate himself, contesting on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.

Work halt

For years, Mr. Murugan has been working from a small office near the erstwhile Kino Theatre.

He recently turned his traditional banner-writing facility into a high-tech flex printing studio. But thanks to the strictures of the Election Commission against plastic flex and other material, work at his studio has come to a grinding halt.

Job crunch

According to Mr. Murugan, nearly 35 such printing centres all over the State are lying idle.

The total loss could be to the tune of Rs. 16 crore and nearly 25,000 people who would have been engaged in printing election material have lost out. Banner artists, painters, boys who paste posters, tie buntings and banners, transporters and sellers of raw materials have been hit badly.

Mr. Murugan is now into electoral politics to make up for the losses. “I have been born and brought up in one of the slums of Bangalore. I have seen the struggle of the people for getting basic necessities like water, sanitation, primary healthcare and hygienic surroundings.”

He added: “I want to change this situation at least in my constituency where there are 25 registered slums. I have the backing of the party policy and leaders in this task. The BSP has already improved the quality of life of thousands of slum dwellers in Uttar Pradesh and a ready model is available for the party to make Bangalore a slum-less city,” he said.

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Karnataka