The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Norms for deploying poll personnel revised

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 11, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Norms for deploying poll personnel revised

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 10. The guidelines regarding deployment of polling personnel have been revised providing for posting of presiding officers for 50 per cent of the polling stations in a district from the adjoining district, as a must. Also, at least one out of the three polling officers should be from outside the district for these polling stations. The remaining polling personnel can be from the same district but they should necessarily be from the outside the Assembly constituency.

The modified guidelines which were released by the Additional Chief Electoral officer, Ajay Sawhney, at a press conference here today, also bar women officers from being posted outside their native districts on the polling day. The district election officers (Collectors) have been asked to take special care for women officers with the identification of polling stations in advance where they are to be deployed. The women employees meant for election duty would have to be selected and issued deployment letters on the day of dispersal and tagged onto the main group.

Mr. Sawhney said if a woman employee was to be posted for a polling station, a second employee from the same sex should be posted along with her for better security. In the case of polling stations exclusively set up for women voters, posting of a woman officer was mandatory.

He said district election officers would have to use "random number generation technique" for marking the available election staff for deployment within the district and outside it. The presiding officer was to be necessarily of higher grade compared to the polling personnel. As per another guideline, the polling personnel should reach the other districts where they were posted, a day ahead of the distribution of polling materials so that they would be able to familiarise themselves with the local situation.

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