Election, slated on February 15, approaching fast, Dehradun district administration has received over 200 applications seeking exemption from election duty on the grounds of health and marriage of the applicants' family members.
Dehradun chief development officer (CDO) Banshidhar Tiwari said on Monday that a team comprising health officers, doctors and senior administrative officers will be formed under the guidance of district magistrate/ district election officer Ravinath Raman to look into the issue. Most of them wanted to get exemption from election duty on various grounds like medical, marriage and religious occasion, he added. Another administrative officer said that a large number of applications seeking exemption from election duty had been received at the offices of the CDO and additional district magistrate. Most of the applications were from the education department, he stated.
Dehradun ADM (administration) Harbeer Singh said that three applications seeking leave on medical ground and marriage functions in the applicant's family have been received at his office. The issue has been referred to the team formed by DM to examine the matter.
With the officials on a leave-seeking spree, an administrative officer warned that an FIR under section 77 of Representation of the People’s Act would be lodged in the police station concerned against the officials who are found guilty of skipping election duty after their names are enlisted. He asked the enlisted employees to attend their training programme at the venues to be declared later by the district election officer.
Observers say that it is a common practice during every election for a large section of the employees approaching the election officers, seeking exemption, using their connections with the politicians and bureaucrats. “Due to this trend continuing unabated, those who genuinely need the exemption suffer a lot,” said one of them.