Absent during poll training: About 700 polling personnel show-caused

BALURGHAT: As many as 700 polling personnel were show-caused by the District Election Commission (DEC) of South Dinajpur owing to their absence during poll training that were conducted on March 23 and 24.

It is known that the DEC will take strict action if the replies are not received on time. According to an official source, a few days ago a letter was sent to 6,720 polling personnel covering five training centres of the district informing them to undergo two-days training for voting.It was seen that around 700 polling personnel across the district did not attend the training. Following this a show-cause letter was issued and sent to them by the DEC seeking an explanation for their absence.

Kasif Sabir, Officer-in-Charge of South Dinajpur PP Cell, said: “The two-day training of polling personnel has been completed. About 700 workers were absent. They have been listed and summoned for an explanation. If no satisfactory reply is received, the matter will be reported to the Central Election Commission. Action will also be taken as directed by the Commission.”

There are a total of 1,569 booths in the South Dinajpur district for the Balurghat Lok Sabha seat. Polling will take place in the second phase along with Darjeeling and Raiganj on April 26. For this reason, a total number of 6,720 polling personnel will be deployed.

There is reluctance among many to do voting duty. Many of them have already dropped their names citing various reasons for the exemption of poll duty. Names of special needs and senior staff in the list of poll workers have also been dropped on application.

A senior DEC official said the polling personnel who were absent from the training will be imparted the training. There will be more training camps conducted by the DEC. Strict action will be taken against all those who miss future training programmes also.