Although Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla had announced that women officers would be exempted from postings outside their home constituencies, the directive has not been followed in Pune. With many women officers getting their marching orders to other Lok Sabha constituencies, the randomisation method has been continued in spite of the order from the election commission.

Reason? With no randomisation there were certain booths where only women officers were posted and the election department decided to review the situation. " We had to follow the randomization method to evenly distribute the staff,''said Anil Pawar, deputy resident collector.

The assembly election will see 31,000 government employees being posted for the 6,692 polling booths in the district. Of this 11,000 are women employees and almost all of them have been assigned duty outside their constituencies and even in remote areas. A women employee from Central Water and Power Research Station (CWRPS) said that she was expecting the Khadakwasla constituency and instead had been assigned to a remote area in Bhor. Then there are others who have got remote areas in Velhe and even in Solapur.

"We are very upset that they are not following the election commission's rules. We are supposed to report three days in advance and these remote areas have no facilities,'' she said.

Pawar however said that he is talking to all the electoral registration officers to make sure that all women employees are taken care of and all facilities are provided for their stay. This time many teachers have been exempted from poll duty.

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