Residents suffer as govt staff, cops busy with election duty

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 18

As government officials and the police are busy with the election duty, residents are facing difficulties in getting their work done at government offices.

The officials say they are not being able to deal with public-related work as they are busy in finishing paper work. Besides police personnel, election duties have been assigned to teachers, lecturers and office superintendents on the directions of the Election Commission.

Kulwinder Singh, a resident of the Bhagu Road area, said, “I have been visiting the District Transport Office office for the past three days, but I am unable to get my work done.”

Ramesh Kumar, Bhushan Kumar and Mohan Lal have same story to narrate. They have been visiting police stations for the past few days to file complaints with the police, but failed to do so.

“The process of filing any complaint with the police has become very slow as a large number of personnel have been deployed at check points,” said Balkaran Singh of Ajit Road, whose vehicle has been stolen and is trying to lodge an FIR. He said these days, there was a lot of paper work pressure on police personnel.

Police officials say they are also working under immense pressure as they have to submit detailed reports to their senior officials on a daily basis. They said their working hours had increased manifolds ahead of the Assembly elections.