Truant employees reluctant to attend election duties have become a sore point for the GHMC, officiating as the District Election Office for the Lok Sabha polls.
About 200 employees deputed as presiding and assistant presiding officers (POs and APOs) failed to report for duty as required on Wednesday. They were part of 18,500-strong polling staff, and all had attended two training sessions conducted by GHMC officials. They were expected to report at DRC centres on Wednesday, to collect polling material and proceed to their respective polling stations.
“In their place, we have sent the reserve staff kept aside for emergencies like this. Though we did face such a situation even at the time of Assembly polls, the truant officials were fewer,” District Election Officer M. Dana Kishore said.
It has become a practice for the employees unwilling to report for duty, to lurk about in the vicinity of the centre till the teams are dispatched to their respective polling stations. Reporting after the teams are gone will allow them to replace the staff kept in reserve, thereby avoiding polling duty.
Mr. Dana Kishore, however, asked the POs and APOs to report at the designated DRC centres at least by 7 a.m. on Thursday, or face action under the Representation of the People Act. It has already been communicated to the respective heads of departments to take action against the truant employees, he said.
Mr. Dana Kishore inspected DRC centres at Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy Stadium in Yusufguda, Centre for Distance Education at Osmania University, among others, and interacted with the polling staff who had come there to collect material. He also inspected the arrangements, polling material, attendance of the polling staff, and security arrangements.
A total of 41,77,703 voters in the city have a chance to exercise their franchise for electing members to the Lok Sabha representing Hyderabad constituency and part of Secunderabad.
Voting will be conducted between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., at 3,976 polling stations situated in 1,583 locations. Arrangements have been made for webcasting of the polling, which will be remotely monitored from a control room in GHMC.
Arrangements have also been made for the disabled and senior citizens to come to the polling stations to cast their votes. A total of 7, 000 volunteers — 2,000 from NSS and 5,000 from NCC — have been roped in for the purpose, Mr. Dana Kishore informed.
SVEEP (Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation) officer D. Hari Chandana on Wednesday flagged off the vehicles deployed to fetch the disabled and the aged voters to the polling stations at People’s Plaza, Necklace Road.
