Vijayawada: Employees unions fume at election notification
APNGO State president N Chandra Sekhar Reddy and other leaders addressing a press conference in Vijayawada on Saturday
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers Association (APNGOs) state president N Chandrasekhar Reddy said the employees were not ready for the local body polls due to threat of coronavirus and appealed to the State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar to postpone the elections. Chandrasekhar Reddy on Saturday responded to the notification released by the SEC for the first phase of elections. He questioned who would take responsibility if the employees were infected by coronavirus while discharging polling duty.
"Some employees have already died on duty in the state due to virus and their families are facing many hardships. What is the urgency to conduct the local body polls? The same SEC did not conduct elections in two-and-a-half years. AP High Court has clearly said both corona vaccination drive and polls are important," he said
Chandrasekhar Reddy said the State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar addressed the media at his office in Vijayawada covering his face with the face shied. If his life was precious for him, was it not the case for employees, he said.
"We strongly oppose the decision of the SEC to conduct the local body polls and are hopeful that the Supreme Court verdict will come in favour of the employees on Monday. We will abide by the Supreme Court verdict on elections," he said.
Amaravati JAC chairman Bopparaju Venkateswarlu said Covid vaccination was very important to the lakhs of employees and stated that the employees would attend the duty after taking the vaccine. He said election was very lengthy process and employees need protection from coronavirus. SEC staff was very limited and most of the election work is done by the government employees.
Venkateswarlu made it clear that the employees cannot attend poll duties at the cost of their lives. He said the SEC was not giving appointment to the JAC leaders who were trying to meet him since Friday.
He said they had prepared a detailed memorandum to submit to the SEC but not got the appointment.