Over four lakh government employees and school and college teachers, who have been assigned election duty are hoping for better facilities in the polling stations they will be assigned to, a day before the polling day on April 6.
The complaints about the lack of basic amenities in the place they have to stay in, the availability of food near the polling station on polling day, the absence of transport services in case the station was located in a remote location are among the factors that make them reluctant in accepting polling duty, they say.
One of the coordinators of JACTTO-GEO G. Venkatesan says: “Though they are eligible for a postal vote after they are assigned a polling station a day before the day of polling, they are usually busy to find out how they can reach the place. In their busy, some of them end up not receiving their postal votes. There should be a system wherein only after they cast their postal vote, they would be given the letter on polling duty.”
A teacher in a city-based women’s college points out that the lack of washroom facilities and accommodation near the polling station is often the reason why many women staff are hoping to not be assigned for election duty.
Another government staffer contends that most of those assigned election duties are above 50 years of age and tend to have high blood pressure and diabetes. “Naturally, they have to eat food on time. Instead of giving money, breakfast and lunch packets could be made available to them on polling day through the local bodies. Local police stations could take care of the requirements of all police personnel deployed in their jurisdiction.”
“The Transport Department must operate special night service buses after the last bus for the polling staff so that they are not left in the lurch after they hand over the EVMs and VVPATs to the police personnel,” he suggests.
When The Hindu contacted Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo, he said: “We are very, very vigilant on this. Time and again, we have been instructing our election machinery that providing the minimum facilities, which the Commission desires, should be there. It is non-negotiable and we are ensuring that also.”
“Even after that, if there are some cases or if some deviations are noticed, we will be strict in that. We will ensure that all facilities provided by the Commission, are made available those involved in election work,” he said.
As for the demand on allowing government staff to proceed on polling duty only after casting their postal vote since some of them are not able to collect them on time, Mr. Sahoo said that the government officials assigned election duty are given postal ballots much in advance.
