Employees seeking poll relief taken by surprise

The Muktsar district administration took a large number of government employees, who sought exemption from the poll duty on medical grounds, by surprise with on- the-spot health check-up.

Sources said around 500 applications had been received for exemption from the election duty. “To deal with the issue and give justice to the needy people, the Additional Deputy Commissioner called a doctor from the Mukstar Civil Hospital to conduct a medical check-up of the applicants. Those found genuine were exempted from the election duty,” said sources.

Malout SDM Sanjeev Kumar said action would be initiated against those who remained absent from the rehearsal for election duty.

Several employees claimed that the administration had assigned the task of assistant presiding officer to pre-primary teachers. “The duty of presiding officer and assistant presiding officer is always given to principals, head teachers, bank managers, lecturers and master cadre teachers. The pre-primary teachers can only perform the duty of polling officers as they are less experienced,” said a teacher.