Officials Unwilling To Join Poll Duty

A substantial number of administrative staff in different regions have wanted exemption from election duty, citing one cause or another, the famous being bad health.

Manny of them have either forwarded a false wedding invitation or a medical certificate to miss out the poll duty on May 19.

With the shooting event in Patti, where Punjab Youth Congress block president Sukhraj Singh Bhagupur was shot dead, the election team members are attempting their best to keep themselves away from the complete election exercise.

Offices of the region magistrates and additional deputy commissioners are crammed with such requests.

Sources added that the officials, mainly females, were more unwilling to go for election duty dreading law and order trouble. In one such example, an executive engineer today approached the bureau of a senior officer and forwarded a wedding invitation card to seek out exemption from election duty for his wife.

“I became doubtful as the card was of deprived quality. When I told the XEN that I will lodge a cheating case against him if the invitation card is found false, he accepted that the card was indeed counterfeit”, said the officer.

Several officers are currently busy discovering their links to make sure that their relative’s name is not on the election duty register.

“We are scrutinising the requests. We have already noticed several applications with false testimonials. It is strange that a large number of employees are suffering from chronic mental illness,” said ADC (D) Anindita Mitra.

Interestingly, medical certificates citing psychological and stress linked diseases top the list.

“If all the certificates are scrutinized minutely, 95% of them would turn out to be false,” said a senior IAS officer.

A administrative executive who has applied for release from election duty on medical grounds stated: “There is no insurance or social security. Violence is a regular feature in these elections. We cannot risk our lives”.