May 02, 2014
Sir/Madam,
Congratulations for successfully conducting the Elections
to the Lok Sabha 2014 in Mumbai. We suppose you agree that this feat could not
have been possible without the full co-operation of polling staff at various
levels. We are professors at reputed colleges in Mumbai—which went to polls on
April 24, 2014. We performed duties as Presiding Officers (PROs) and Polling
Officers (POs) across the city.
We were looking forward to our role in the electoral
process. However, what we faced was nightmarish and we are no more surprised
why most people who have done this duty before consider it to be a burden. We
faced several insurmountable difficulties from the time duties were assigned to
us till the submission of equipments. We would like to bring some of these to
your notice in order to ensure that the same are not faced in future.
1)
Highly
qualified Professors like us were assigned
with ‘peon’ duties. This was extremely humiliating. These had to be hurriedly
changed with an avoidable application procedure. A criterion should be made
regarding who can be appointed as PRO. A person who has previously worked as PRO/APRO/FPO
would be more suitable.
2)
Election
duties were assigned indiscriminately without taking into consideration the
age, number of years from superannuation, health issues among others. It is
extremely sad that the point is substantiated by the untimely deaths of two polling staff members due to this
insensitive process.
3)
Explicit
threats of action and summons to people who were unable to report only added to
the mental agony. Several colleagues received duty orders on the morning of
training itself, making it impossible to report due to prior commitments. It
complicated matters.
4)
Another
major lacuna was lack of uniformity of
training. While personnel at some training centres were barely trained,
there were other centres which imparted training regarding fire extinguishing
as well. Again, training was entirely in Marathi. So non-Marathi speaking members were left in the lurch. Training
certainly could have been more organised and systematic. Arrangements at
training centres also left a lot to be desired. While some offered at least a
cup of tea for people who travelled long distances on Sundays despite railway mega-blocks,
other centres had none. Small desks at the schools being utilised as training
centres added to the general dissatisfaction among the trainees.
5)
Informing
people about their status as ‘reserve’
officers led to them taking the training very lightly. Subsequently on
being given duties, they were a liability to the regular assigned staff as we
had to help them out at practically everything.
6)
There
were teams which comprised of all women
officers. We do not underestimate the capacity of women as most of us here
are women who have successfully performed duties as PROs on April 24th.
However, since the time the teams were allotted, we had enquired who would take
charge of equipments on the night previous to the polls as women do not stay
overnight. We were assured of ‘shuffling’ of teams to solve the issue. Despite
repeated reminders, none of it was done till the last minute which led to
immense discontentment and was sorted only after bitter arguments ensued. This
could have been easily avoided.
7)
Polling
booths were set up in nearly inhuman conditions.
Many of us were assigned duties in pandals on open, uneven grounds with
asbestos sheets as ceilings. In this scorching summer it was nothing less than
torture to be there. We could nearly foresee the onset of several health issues
due to this.
8)
Lack of basic amenities like toilet facilities made this duty a major
challenge. Women especially faced severe problems. Some of us had to go without
the facilities for nearly 20 hours. The system seems to be largely insensitive
towards these problems.
9)
Location
of these booths and nature of duties meant that most of us went without food for two whole days. It is
shocking to assume that everyone is in the prime of youth to bear such
conditions. Health issues such as diabetes crop up at any age and timely diet
is imperative. Even if for a day, this duty can severely—even fatally—affect an
individual’s health. There were no health
enclosures for such patients to take their insulin injections either.
10) Many of us faced problems due to untrained and clueless Zonal Officers. Many of them were extremely rude, impolite, ill-mannered and
ill-tempered. Elections are an immense responsibility which cannot be
performed without the understanding and co-operation of people who come from
different backgrounds and professions. We give no one the right to foul-mouth,
degrade or humiliate us only because the ZO is habituated to that language and behaviour.
In that case the ZO training should include lessons on basic public behaviour
as well.
11) Collection
centres need to be better prepared. We are aware that the Election staff is also working relentlessly. But
absence of proper time management made matters worse for both sides. Absence or
inadequacy of basic facilities and long, stressful hours of work made both the
staff at collection centres as well as polling staff hostile to each other.
Things need to be expedited on this front as we found a lot to be desired in
the working of collection centres.
12) If not transport
facilities, one could expect at least local trains to be functional on the
night after polling. There was no arrangement for an overnight stay on April 24.
Several polling personnel lived far away from the place assigned to them on
duty. After submission of equipment, a lot of them had to sit at the CPS or at
the railway stations till local train services resumed in the morning. We
wonder with great concern as to who would be responsible for any untoward
incident that occurred at night, especially in case of women staff.
We have never refused to perform the duties assigned
to us. We also do not need the ZO to give us lessons on how election duty is a
‘national duty’. We only demand that the
system provides us with basic dignity and treats us as humans afterall.
Many others have faced similar if not worse situations
but have chosen to keep silent for they either feel nothing will be done even
if one writes or because they fear backlash. We on the contrary are those who
feel that change will not happen unless people in authority are aware of the
problems faced at the grassroots. We hope our belief is not let down.
[Note: The mail was CC'd to CEC V.S. Sampath, EC H.S. Brahma and the Chief Election Officer of Maharashtra. The grievance mail was written largely by me with some inputs from colleagues and friends who performed duties as the PROs. It was forwarded with their names and details as well... but I withhold them for obvious reasons. The reason I post this as a blog is not to spread malice or ill-will about the EC but to bring to light serious lapses that occur at the grassroots. I haven't heard from the EC office at any level till the time I post this blog. I shall certainly write about it if and when I do.]
