1 week Ago By Swati Shinde Gole
Pune: Vaibhav Jadhav, a zilla parishad school teacher from Satara, will travel 180km from Maan taluka to Patan for his election duty. Several teachers from Pune, Nashik, Jalgaon, Satara and Kolhapur, will also commute between 150 and 200km on Tuesday morning to their assigned polling booths, stay on the schools' premises and be ready for polling on Wednesday. When polling is over, they will need another six hours to hand over the EVMs and voting reports to the authorities.
Then, travelling home after midnight, without enough food, accommodation, or travel arrangements is risky. Jadhav said, "It takes 40 to 45 hours from picking up the election material and EVMs to completing the election process in urban areas. In rural areas, it takes longer.
Due to the high risk and responsibility involved, poll workers experience mental stress. We want the Election Commission of India to provide basic amenities for staff stationed at polling centres and an increase in their allowances." Election officials said that the appointment of duties was the responsibility of the district collector and was usually based on available resources.
The polling staff must be present at the respective election office at 8am on Nov 19 to pick up election material and EVMs and leave for the designated polling centre to set up the polling station and make other arrangements. They must be present for election duties at 5am on Nov 20. Once voting is completed, they have to stay on until the morning of Nov 21 to submit the documents and machines.
Once this process is completed, the election duty officers can go home. Somnath Walke, a national award-winning teacher from Beed, will travel 213km from Pargaon Jogeshwari to Parali to his assigned polling booth. Walke said, "We are not assigned the constituency where we are employed but to other constituencies within the district.
I work in Ashti constituency, so I have been assigned Parali constituency. This is standard procedure." Teachers and associations have suggested several measures to reduce inconveniences to the staff on poll duty.
Retired joint director of education Bhau Gawande suggested good arrangements for reaching the polling location and safe accommodation, especially for women. "Often, there is a delay in returning materials on the voting day, and most accommodations are closed by then. Food arrangements should be made as many run out of food and polling staff should not be kept hungry," he added.
Teachers stated that if it gets late to wind up the exit work, arrangements should be made for overnight stay. Gawande added that there have been accidents and loss of life when members returned late at night and such travel should be avoided. Stressful, long hours for staff A teacher from Maan taluka in Satara has to reach a booth in Patan taluka 180km away by Nov 19.
The next day, they will wake up at 4am to start work which will go on until midnight. If there is a bus service, we will cover the distance and reach our taluka around 2pm. Some teachers live in villages 35 to 40km away and will reach home by 3am.
This is highly stressful. Balaji Jadhav I ZP teacher from Vijaynagar school in Maan taluka of Satara The responsibility of assigning duties to govt employees is on the respective election officers in charge of their regions. The appointments are based on the available resources and also based on the Election Commission guidelines.
An election officer.
