NEW DELHI: A day after the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, issued an order stating that polling parties would stay at the polling centres on the night before the Lok Sabha elections to be held on May 25, the government school teachers association has urged the CEO to withdraw such an order, calling it “harassment.”
Responding to the order, Ajay Veer Yadav, General Secretary of the Government School Teachers Association (GSTA), said that keeping polling parties at the polling centres on the night before the elections is “akin to harassment”.
“Among these teachers, the number of female teachers is higher than that of male. Arrangements have been made for all teachers on election duty to be assigned duties within their respective Lok Sabha constituencies, meaning that no member of the polling party will have to come from a great distance and can easily reach the polling centre in the morning, as has been the practice every time. So, the order for an overnight stay is unnecessary,” said Yadav.
“In the past, a similar arrangement was made, which proved unsuccessful because the bedding and other arrangements provided for the polling officers were very dirty, smelly, and unusable. The polling centers also lacked proper toilet and bathing facilities, and it is not feasible for polling personnel to carry luggage along with the EVM machines. Staying at the polling center the night before, conducting polling the entire day without a break, depositing the EVMs and handing over documents to officials the next night amounts to almost 36 hours of duty.” he added.