Majority of officers fail exam on poll rules

Nellore: An exam is being conducted on the Election Commission rules for poll officials drafted for the ensuing election duties after training classes.

However, the performance of the officials in the first such exam conducted recently in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district has baffled higher officials.

Most of the officials who will manage poll duty in the future did not even secure 50 per cent marks.

Senior officials made it clear to the officials on poll duty that they need to study and familiarise themselves with the Election Commission rules and regulations while hinting that they will conduct exams after every training session.

Sources said that most of those attending the training hardly pay any attention to the instructions. These officials will be posted two per polling station for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections and will play a crucial role in ensuring its smooth conduct.

A senior official of the district said that the test was conducted for 169 officials who are going to be posted for duty in the polling stations pertaining to seven Assembly segments under the Nellore Lok Sabha constituency.

Though all of them, except for three, were on election duties at least three times in the past, they secured very poor marks in the examination.

According to officials concerned, as many as 21,225 officials including the 20 per cent reserve manpower from various departments have been drafted for election duty. They will be manning 2,830 polling stations of both Assembly and Lok Sabha segments in Nellore district.

Collector R. Muthyala Raju made it clear to all those being drafted for election duties that they must attend training programmes without fail to avoid serious action from the Election Commission.

He said that there will not be any exemptions other than anything that has been specifically mentioned in the Election Commission guidelines.

Those exempt include lactating mothers, pregnant women, cancer and heart patients, as per the rules.

This is in addition to some sections of disabled, doctors, Auxiliary nurse midwife (ANMs), veterinary doctors and field level commercial tax officials.

Meanwhile, reacting to the complaints over deletions of votes, he said that all deletions require Election Commission permission and cases are being booked if the applications are found bogus.