Vehicular movement on the Court Road was disrupted for some time when the ex-servicemen who had been drafted for poll duty, resorted to a road roko protesting against what they called ‘poor honorarium’ for the election duty.
In all, 450 ex-servicemen were drafted for election duty for four days from April 22 to 25.
They were surprised to find that the honorarium of Rs.200 was quite inadequate as they were on duty round-the-clock.
Road roko Irked by the poor honorarium, they resorted to ‘road roko’ urging the Election Commission to sanction fair honorarium in recognition of their services. They said that this time, the honorarium was far less compared to the previous elections.
Police officials rushed to the spot and their attempt to pacify them proved to be a futile exercise. The police shifted them to the Armed Reserve grounds.
Shifted A few representatives of ex-servicemen went to the Collectorate to submit a petition but had to return as the District Collector was not available. The ex-servicemen later dispersed, without receiving the honorarium.
An ex-serviceman, employed as a faculty in a college, said that the poor treatment meted out to ex-servicemen mattered more for them than the monetary benefits.
Although the ex-servicemen were designated as ‘special police officer’, they were more humiliated in terms of honorarium, he said.
