EC ropes in 1.8 lakh government employees for LS polls in TS

Hyderabad: The Election Commission gets ready for the conduct of elections to the 17 Parliamentary constituencies in the state in a fair and transparent manner on April 11. Around 1.80 lakh government employees are being deployed on election duty in the state. Another one lakh will be out-sourced for the election duty. They include web casters, videographers, drivers, cleaners, etc.

Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said that election duty orders have been issued to around 1.8 lakh employees as Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers, Other Polling Officers and Micro Observers.

In addition to this, it is estimated that another 1 lakh or more people will be involved in various other election duties, including those of web casters, videographers, drivers and cleaners. Special efforts are being made across the state to ensure that all these people are able to vote and participate in the election.

All employees on election duty have been issued postal ballots and it is expected that a majority of them will be able to cast their votes using Election Duty Certificates (EDC). EDCs are issued to those people who are voters of the same Parliamentary constituency where they are also on election duty and they permit the EDC holder to vote at any polling station within the Parliamentary constituency.

The CEO has brought in transparency and accountability to the process of issuing postal ballots and EDCs by initiating a statewide IT platform PBSoft which monitors the issue of postal ballots/EDCs to those on election duty. It is expected that this system will minimize gaps and ensure access to voting rights to all those on election duty.

Employees on election duty and citizens participating in the election process in the role of web casters, videographers, etc, are urged to ensure that they submit correctly-filled Form 12/12A as applicable along with their electoral roll details in the office of their District Collector who has issued duty orders in the next one week.

They are also requested to attend trainings with these necessary documents so that preparation of their postal ballots and EDCs can take place in time to enable them to vote, the official said.