Staff on poll duty complains of not receiving election duty certificate

Tarn Taran, May 31

Employees deputed for election duty have complained that they have not been given an election duty certificate (EDC) which would help them cast their votes at the station where they have been assigned poll duty. Kulwinder Kaur, a teacher at a government school and her other associates, said today that though they had been given polling material and sent to their place of duty, they were not given the EDCs. The employees said this would deprive them of their right to vote.

Employees said that they met Additional Deputy Commissioner (Urban Development) Varinderpal Singh Bajwa in this regard, but the problem had not been resolved. When contacted, District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar refuted employees’ claim. He said the administration had made arrangements to deliver the EDCs to employees.

Varinderpal Singh, ADC (Urban Development), confirmed that the employees who met him had not received their EDCs. He said the EDCs received from the office of the Deputy Commissioner were delivered to employees. After submission of the EDCs to presiding officer, employees, who were deployed on election duty, would be given a chance to vote at their place of duty on the day of polling, he said.