Ludhiana teachers question weekend SIR duty after being left without work

Teachers also raised concerns over the timing of the order, saying directions were issued late on Friday afternoon after schools had closed

Ludhiana

The Election Commission had directed that special camps be held at polling stations on July 11 and 12 for collection and digitisation of enumeration forms. (HT PHOTO)

Government school teachers in Ludhiana questioned the decision to keep schools open over the weekend for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after many claimed they spent Saturday sitting idle as booth level officers (BLOs) either did not turn up or did not require assistance from the teaching staff.

Following directions from the chief electoral officer, all government and aided schools across Punjab were kept open on Saturday and will remain open on Sunday for SIR-related work. The Election Commission had directed that special camps be held at polling stations on July 11 and 12 for the collection and digitisation of Enumeration Forms, with BLOs required to remain present from 8 am to 3 pm.

However, several teachers in Ludhiana alleged that despite reporting for duty, they had little or no work to perform. They questioned the need to call teaching staff on a weekend when the exercise was primarily being handled by BLOs.

Charanjeet Kaur Ahuja, principal of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Cemetery Road, said the entire school staff reported as per directions, but no BLO visited the school. “Our staff was present, but no BLO turned up. There was no work assigned to us and everyone remained idle throughout the day,” she said.

“Many teachers who belong to other districts had already left for their hometowns as Saturday and Sunday were holidays. They had to return only to sit idle in school,” a teacher said.

Jagjit Singh Mann, head teacher of Government Primary School, Mangli Uchi, said BLOs were present at his school but teachers had a limited role in the process. “The BLOs carried out their work independently. There was little for the school staff to do,” he said.

Dharamjeet Singh Dhillon, district president of the Lecturer Cadre Union, said voters visited schools where polling booths had been set up, but questioned why institutions without designated booths were also kept open.

“The exercise was meant for polling stations where BLOs were deployed. Keeping all schools open without proper coordination caused inconvenience to teachers,” he said.