Employees will not get exemption from election duty without any valid reason: Distt Electoral Officer
Ferozepur, January 21, 2022: Many officials seem to be reluctant to go on election duty. Therefore, they often cite medical grounds to get an exemption from poll duty. And, now, the district administration has decided to curb this practice of officials using health grounds as a reason to get exemption from poll duty.
Now, no employee will get exemption from election duty without any valid reason, said Girish Dayalan, District Electoral Officer, while giving strict instructions, in a meeting with all the ROs and officers regarding the Assembly elections at the District Administrative Complex
DEO-cum-DC said that it has been observed that during elections, the employees refrain from performing their duties without any reason whereas we should be proud that we are playing an important part in conducting elections in the largest democracy in the world.
He further said that a committee would be constituted to examine the justification for the exemption of employees from duty. If the employee is unable to attend to duty due to ill health or due to a valid reason, the committee would take a decision after an investigation. He said that strict action would be taken against any employee who refrains from duty or seeks exemption without a valid reason.
The District Electoral Officer said that there will be special training of poll personnel on 23rd January regarding elections if an employee is himself or herself Covid positive then he or she can apply for exemption only from this training, with valid Covid positive report but he shall, after a period of quarantine is over (7 days from the first test of positive) be asked to take part in the next training. There shall be no blanket exemption from duty on this ground.
DEO said that apart from conducting the election process in a transparent manner, the other major task was to expedite the vaccination process. He directed all the SDMs to form teams for vaccination and uploading of data in coordination with the officials of the health department to expedite the work of vaccination in a planned manner.