Despite the looming COVID-19 threat, many students enrolled under the National Service Scheme (NSS), National Cadet Corps (NCC), Student Police Cadet (SPC), and Student Police Cadet Volunteer Corps (SVC) voluntarily turned up for helping the election authorities and voters in various polling stations in Kozhikode district on Tuesday.
When the majority of NSS and NCC volunteers from colleges assumed the role of Special Police Officers, their SPC and SVC counterparts in schools worked as volunteers to guide the voters including the differently abled and senior citizens to the booths.
Though there was an official directive to drop the deployment of SPC volunteers during elections, it was reconsidered following the request from various Station House Officers in the rural areas. The main issue raised was the shortage of volunteers for assisting the elderly voters in various booths. Also, there was a shortage of officials to oversee the implementation of social distancing protocol.
A Student Police Cadet from Koyilandy said he turned up for duty along with some of his close friends, as the polling booths in his area were badly in need of supporting staff. “We came to know about the shortage during a chat with one of the police officials in charge of our training activities. As we were all prepared, we could offer our service in time,” he said.
K. Santhosh Kumar, Assistant Nodal officer, SPC (Kozhikode rural), said nearly 700 students were allowed to work as volunteers as they individually came forward with the request and their parents were very happy to cooperate with the move. “Our District Police Chief A. Sreenivas, Additional Superintendent of Police M. Pradeepkumar, and SPC Nodal Officer C. Sundareshan, were all in support of their independent decision as they had played a very important role in their training and other motivation activities,” he said.
At the differently abled friendly booths, there were 3,200 NSS volunteers from various higher secondary schools on duty. NSS District Coordinator S. Sreechith said the student volunteers made their entry by wholeheartedly taking up District Collector S. Sambasiva Rao’s call for creating a barrier-free ambience in all polling stations, he said.
