Collector threatens police action on officials bunking poll duty

Mumbai Suburban District Collector takes action against 789 officials for skipping election training, threatens FIRs. Other districts also cracking down on absentee poll duty staff.

Mumbai Suburban District Collector Rajendra Kshirsagar has initiated action against 789 officials who remained absent for election training and are set to bunk poll duty.

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Kshirsagar said he has over 7,000 booths and four parliamentary constituencies and needs nearly 40,000 personnel for election duty. “We have found that 789 persons have not come so far. We have issued notices to them for failing to turn up for training. We will organise another training for them. We will see who fails to turn up and then I will direct filing of FIRs against them as per sections of The Representation of the People Act,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, in the city collectorate, collector Sanjay Yadav said, “I am taking a review of how many people did not come for training. Those who have been avoiding election duty will face action.’’

The city colllectorate has two parliamentary constituencies and needs 12,500 staff for 2509 polling stations. “We have completed training for some of the staffers. We will do a review of how many people have avoided election duty,” he said.

Since a large number of staffers are needed for poll duty, the election officers had called doctors for poll duty. But the plan was dropped following protests by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

The election commission has already said that contractual staff cannot be used for poll duty. In the state government and corporations, strength of regular staff has dwindled over the years and has been replaced by contractual staff. Due to the EC direction of using regular staff, there is pressure on regular officers. But the collectors need to discharge their duties as district election officers too. Therefore, they have taken a serious view of the situation, said an officer of the election branch at Mantralaya.

In Raigad district, the training will be held on April 5 and 6 while, in Thane district, the training will be held on April 7.