Five employees suspended for failure to attend election training

Tirupati: Election collectors and district election officers Pravin Kumar cracked down on staff who failed to attend the second phase of the training programme for election officers, polling agents and other election workers. He had previously issued a formal notice to 14 election workers and suspended five of them. He also issued a formal notice to 272 staff who were absent from their election duties.

In a statement on Friday, the DEO said the explanation given by the five officials was not satisfactory and they have been suspended. He added that conducting elections is a big responsibility in a democracy where employees have to perform their role by discharging their duties. However, some employees have shown negligence in discharging their election duties and have not attended training programmes. In addition, 272 employees who have been issued notices of appeal for not turning up for the election have to explain their reasons within five days.

DEO Kumar said the first phase of random selection of counting personnel was completed on Friday. The process was done using the software of the ECI website. A total of 1,053 personnel were allotted, including counting supervisors, counting assistants and micro observers, including 20 per cent reserve personnel.

District Revenue Officer Penchala Kishore, Human Resource Management Nodal Officer Chandrasekhar Naidu and NIC DIO Venkateswarlu were present.

Meanwhile, DEO Kumar visited the counting centre and strong rooms of the School of Engineering and Technology, Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam (SPMVV) on Friday and made several suggestions on the arrangements made. He closely observed barricades, seating and other arrangements. The counting centre must have uninterrupted power supply and for this, a generator of required capacity must be provided. He also inspected the security arrangements, EVMS through the CCTV cameras in the control room and signed the visitors’ book.