The Lucknow district administration has decided to crack the whip on state government employees who intend to give the election training programme a miss.

The administration has announced that if the employees fail to attend the training programme by October 31 or fail to provide a valid reason for their absence, the administration will lodge an FIR against them.

The FIR will be lodged under the Representation of People’s Act for denying to perform duties.

The district administration is conducting a training programme from October 26 to 31 for 300 employees from various departments who have been selected for election duty. The Lucknow (west) Assembly seat goes to polls on November 7.

In the first two days of the programme, around 150 employees were absent. On Monday, 222 employees were absent from the training — 80 presiding officers, 57 first election officers and 85 second and third election officers. Today, around 30 per cent of the absentees came for training at the CMS degree college at Kanpur Road.

ADM (Finance and Revenue) and in-charge (personnel) R K Pandey, on instructions from District Magistrate Amit Kumar Ghosh, announced that if the employees do not report by October 31, an FIR will be lodged against them.

“We had sent the letters to all the departments, listing the names of the employees who would be sent for duties. Since most of them appeared on the second day citing that they received the orders late, we are now giving them time till October 31,” said Pandey.

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