Hyderabad: As polling officers from across the state arrived in Hyderabad for the highly-anticipated Greater Hyderabad Municipal Committee elections from Monday morning, the body responsible to host the officers and state police personnel seems to be missing in action.
When Deccan Chronicle reached the polling station, holding polling booth number 18 to 22 at the Gangaputra Community Hall in city's Ramnagar division at 8.30 pm on Monday, the community hall hosting close to 20 personnel, responsible for the elections were yet to get a meal and bed sheets from the GHMC. The correspondent also learnt that there were no mugs or buckets provided in the cubicle-like washrooms. To top it all, there were open urinals for men, whereas no toilets for the female officers.
One of the police officers, stationed at the booth, who did not want to be named said, "No one from GHMC has shown up until now. We had to remove party flags from the premises by ourselves. No tea or coffee or bed sheets have been provided. In the times of pandemic, we have not been provided with sanitisers or masks too. Luckily, Telangana Police has told us that they will provide us with meals."
What's more shocking is that all the people responsible for the smooth functioning of the polls, the three women officers at this polling station, have been put up in three dingy, unclean rooms. They said they were supposed to sleep on the dirty floor with their own bedsheets, or on the small benches provided to them. "We have one small room for three female polling officers and will have to share the washroom with 15 men. None of the bathrooms have mugs or buckets," one of the officers present at the booth said, on condition of anonymity.
