The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Corporation, not Collectorate, handles poll work

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 18, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Corporation, not Collectorate, handles poll work

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, APRIL 17. The Election Commission has ordered the shifting of the Chennai Collector. But it does not mean that the problems plaguing the election district would fade away, say officials familiar with poll duties. They insist that though the Collector is the District Election Officer (DEO), he has nothing to do, at least directly, with the kind of complaints on whose basis his transfer was ordered.

The Chennai Collector relies on the Corporation for getting all field-level work done. The Collectorate has neither the manpower nor the resources to conduct election-related exercise on its own. It depends on the Corporation, so much so that it seems the civic body is organising the elections with an external boss.

The plight of zonal officers, also Electoral Registration Officers, who now have to report to two bosses — the Commissioner on matters of the civic body and to the Collector on election matters — is "unenviable," say sources. It is based on inputs from these officials that the Collector interacts with senior officials.

The Collectorate has about 500 employees in all and the Corporation about 22,000. That is why it is the civic body which is entrusted with these responsibilities, says a senior official.

The Chennai district and the Corporation share the same geographical jurisdiction. But the Corporation virtually is in charge of all administrative aspects.

The Collector handles very few aspects of administration of Chennai. The post of Collector is ceremonial and does not entail the pressures normally associated with the office. In all other districts, the Collectors are always on the move, literally on their toes. Here in Chennai, it does not involve such responsibilities, explains a senior official.

Even today, second day of filing nominations, confusion reigned supreme at the Collectorate, district election office. The responsibility of "elections" as a subject in Chennai district was shifted from the Corporation to the Collectorate some time back after problems between two civil servants cropped up. It was the question of seniority of one civil servant that is responsible, recounts a Corporation staffer.

A former Collector wrote to the then Chief Election Officer pointing out that since in all districts the Collector was the DEO, why should the same not be followed in Chennai. (Till 1999, the Corporation Commissioner was also the DEO).

The CEO forwarded the proposal to the Election Commission, which accepted it. The problems because of this are many.

To start with, election officials, who are in the Chennai Corporation headquarters, have to drive more than two km for a signature — the earlier option was to walk up a flight of steps to reach the Commissioner's office.

Secondly, not all essential officials can be shifted to the Chennai Collectorate — there is no space.

Third, even for the Collector to contact over phone an election official is difficult. The Collector has one phone (one more has been promised for elections, but it is yet to arrive) and there is no exchange.

The Corporation has an electronic exchange with a capacity of 200 extensions (plus 10 direct lines for elections). At any given time, the exchange, commissioned in the early 1990s, has multiple problems, say sources.

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