The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : More staff want to opt out of poll duty

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Friday, May 01, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

More staff want to opt out of poll duty

Deepa H Ramakrishnan

As there are 3,772 polling booths in the city, we need around 22,000 personnel: Lakhoni

Photo: S. Thanthoni

GETTING READY: EVMs being unloaded from a train at the Chennai Central Station on Thursday. —

CHENNAI: More and more government employees in the recent days are thronging the office of Chennai Corporation Commissioner, who is also the District Election Officer, seeking exemption from election duty.

An increase in the number of such petitions has made the Chennai Corporation put up a “Don’t approach for election duty cancellation” notice prominently outside the Commissioner’s chamber.

According to sources in the civic body, in the past couple of days, over 160 employees have approached the DEO, Rajesh Lakhoni, with petitions seeking exemption. On Wednesday alone, 150 persons had sought an appointment with him to explain the reasons for which they want to be spared the duty. These include health reasons and even pre-planned outstation trips with the family. Of the applicants, around 60 per cent are women. “We can consider applications that give genuine reasons. As we have 3,772 polling booths in the city, we need around 22,000 personnel. It is not easy to spare too many of those earmarked for the duty,” Mr. Lakhoni said.

Sources said many staff were reluctant to undertake poll duty as it involved a lot of paper work. Many of the petitioners also came up with recommendations in support of their case from political bigwigs and officials, they added.

More EVMs needed

Meanwhile, the State has been sourcing electronic voting machines (EVMs) from a few other States, including Assam, Orissa and Gujarat.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Naresh Gupta, on Wednesday said that the State faced a shortage of around 30,000 EVMs. On Thursday, a total of 8,600 EVMs were received by the Chennai Corporation. The city, whose requirement is 11,110 EVMs, faced a shortage of nearly 5000 EVMs, which would be met from those being sent from other States. The EVMs from other States are arriving by train and stored at the Corporation Indoor stadium on the Ripon Building campus. The Electronics Corporation of India Limited would check the EVMs, which would then be despatched to the respective districts. In Chennai, the machines are being sent to strong rooms in the 18 Assembly constituencies that form the three Parliamentary constituencies.

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