266 employees absent from poll duty, DC initiates action

As many as 266 employees were absent from election duty in all six Assembly segments in Sonepat. District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar directed the competent authorities to initiate action against the employees for their negligence in duties. The action has been initiated on the basis of the recommendations made by the Returning Officers of all six Assembly constituencies.

Notably, the district administration has made elaborate arrangements to conduct the general Assembly election 2024 in all six Assembly constituencies — Sonepat, Rai, Gohana, Ganaur, Baroda and Kharkhoda. As per sources, approximately a total of 9,000 employees were put on election duty.

The district administration has set up a total 1,291 polling booths in all six constituencies and four employees were deployed at each polling booth to conduct the elections peacefully.

Apart from the security forces, including 1,800 police personnel, 1,100 personnel of Central Police Forces and 12,00 Home Guards of Uttar Pradesh were deployed at polling booths to deal with any untoward situation.

However, the election process has been completed peacefully in all six Assemblies and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere.

But, a total of 266 employees were absent from election duties without any prior information or taking any official leave from their offices. Due to which the Returning Officers had to face a lot of problems in conducting the election works.

Taking a stringent note of it, the returning officials made a detailed report about those employees who were absent.

As per the reports available, a total 24 employees were absent from the Gohana assembly area, 29 employees were absent in Ganaur, 67 employees were absent from the Rai Assembly constituency, 95 employees were absent in the Sonepat Assembly constituency, 26 employees in the Baroda constituency while 25 employees were absent from the Kharkhoda constituency.

Following the reports from the returning officers concerned, Manoj Kumar in his letter to the competent authorities directed them to take disciplinary action against the employees concerned. These employees were absent from duty during the elections without any prior information or permission. He directed the officials to make entry in the employees’ personnel file.

DC Manoj Kumar also sought an action-taken report from the competent authorities within 15 days.