A 57-year-old Sub-Inspector of Central Reserve Police Force, who reached Delhi with his team on May 8 for election duty, was lodged in an accommodation in Rohini which had no fixed toilets and water supply.
On Sunday, police officers were given cold, stale sandwiches at a polling station in North East Delhi. These are just some of the complaints of officers deployed of poll duty across the Capital.
When the sun was at its peak, a CRPF officer sitting with two of his colleagues outside a polling station in North East Delhi’s Jaffrabad said that they reached the venue around 3 p.m. on Saturday and will leave only after the EVMs reach their respective destinations on Sunday night.
Talking about the poll arrangements, the officer said that the accommodation they were lodged in at Rohini had “movable toilets” with no water supply.
The officers travel with their own mess, “so food at the accommodation wasn’t a problem”.
“It is sad that senior CRPF officers of assistant commandant-rank were given a non-AC vehicle to travel around the city,” he said.
The food served was “terrible”, the officer claimed. They were provided cold ‘ poori sabzi ’ for dinner around 9.30 p.m. but they had already eaten by then.
“As security officers, we eat dinner by 7 p.m., so we already had our dinner by the time the meal was served. They were also insufficient food packets and the quality was bad,” he claimed. The next day, they were given the same poori sabzi which only few officers could eat because the number of packets were less.
The officers spent the night inside the school using their own bedding. “We are used to mosquitoes,” he laughed.
According to the officers who started their election journey in March to ensure safe election process across the country, said the arrangements were “better” in Andhra Pradesh, Daman and Diu and a few other States.
Praise for poll panel
Praising the Election Commission, the officer said wherever their train stopped during their journey between States, they were given hot food.
At another polling station in Nand Nagri, three Delhi police officers sitting outside the venue were provided “stale” sandwichesThe food was organised by the local police station staff.
However, despite the dismal conditions, the CRPF officer said that their seniors keep them motivated.
“The country trusts us with free, fair and secure election process and we should always keep that in mind,” they tell us.
