: District Collector-cum- District Election Officer P. Jawahar on Saturday warned of stringent action against the staff of public sector undertakings campaigning for any political parties or candidate.
Addressing reporters here, Mr. Jawahar said there were complaints that staff of public sector undertakings, corporations and boards had been campaigning for political parties skipping their regular duty. “Following such complaints, we have alerted all heads of departments, corporations, public sector undertakings and boards to monitor their movement strictly.”
He directed all staff to be in their offices during working hours and not campaign for any party or candidate.
“If they are found to be errant, stringent action will follow. The flying squad will be monitoring such activities,” said Mr. Jawahar while adding that surprise checks would be conducted on movement of such staff.
So far two employees of government undertakings were found to be engaged in political work in Yanam and one was placed under suspension.
Mr. Jawahar said over 18 cases had been booked against the parties on charges of violating model code conduct. The charges include offences such as paid news, defacement of open places and promises of freebies.
The ruling All India NR Congress and BJP stand on top of the list with four cases each against them. He also said that a standard procedure would be evolved for crowd management during star-campaigners’ public meetings.
An arrack vending shop was sealed for violating rule and 500 litres of IMFL were seized, he added.
Mr. Jawahar added that following the instructions of the Chief Electoral officer, the Election Department had roped in engineering college students to develop an application that would encourage volunteers to help differently abled persons to come to polling stations.
They have been directed to remain in their offices during working hours
