aipur. A big news related to the Panchayat elections in Chhattisgarh has come out. According to the news, the State Election Commission has assigned the duty of polling personnel in such a way that thousands of polling personnel across the state will be deprived of voting.
Yes…! You might be a little surprised after reading the news that the workers who have pledged to ensure 100% voting or who have been sworn in by the Election Commission that they will vote as well as make people aware to vote will not be able to vote. But this surprising news is completely true.
In fact, thousands of employees from rural areas have been caught in the web of duty imposed by the Election Commission for the three-tier Panchayat elections to be held from 17 to 23 February. This problem is so complicated that even the commission does not have a solution for it at the moment and it is trying to find a solution.
The problem arose due to posting of duty in another village outside the village. The bigger problem is that the polling workers engaged in Panchayat elections are not getting the right to vote through postal ballot. In view of these problems, complaints have been made to the District Election Officers by the Employees Union in many districts.
On this, Kamal Verma, the state president of the Officer Employee Federation, said that a letter has just been written to the District Election Officers. There has been no hearing after writing the letter. Tomorrow a letter will be written to all the collectors of the state and the State Election Commission.
State President of Teachers’ Union Rajesh Chatterjee said that this is not a problem of one place, the situation is same in the entire state. Employees are being deprived of their right to vote and no solution has been found for this. Calls are coming continuously from all over the state, they are being told that they are being deprived of voting because employees have been given more duties and they cannot leave their duty and vote. Our only demand is that you take the duty but do not deprive them of the right to vote. Employees should be given the right to vote.
School Teachers Association President Virendra Dubey said that on one hand, a campaign is being run for 100% voting, on the other hand, thousands of employees are being deprived of voting. This is called darkness under the lamp, they will vote but will not be able to vote. This has been complained about continuously to the District Collector Election Officer, but still no solution has been found. This problem is arising due to improper mapping of officers. District Election Officers have been informed about this.
Kamal Verma, President of the Officer Employee Federation, said that a letter has been submitted to the District Election Officers, but the problem has not been resolved. Now we will submit a memorandum to all the District Collectors and the State Election Commission and demand our right to vote.
Secretary of the State Election Commission, Dr. Sarveshwar Bhure said that the dates of the urban body elections and panchayat elections are different. Still, if the employees are not able to vote in the panchayat elections, let us see what can happen and what is the solution for this.
Bemetara Collector Ranbir Sharma said that because we do not have employees. In such a situation, our effort is to ensure that maximum number of polling personnel are able to cast their vote. Still, there will be some left and for them there is no option right now because there is no provision of ballot paper.
