Pregnant women, physically challenged staff to be kept out this time: Chief Electoral Officer

Women employees of the state government serving in Pune-who were assigned election duty in other areas during the Lok Sabha polls and who had approached the district collector saying they had not been given even basic facilities-have been assured that during the Assembly polls, there will be no repeat of the problems they had faced during the recent polls.

Thousands of women across the state, particularly those working in the city, who were given election duty had complained of shortage of toilets, drinking water, adequate security and transportation facilities.

District Collector Chandrakant Dalvi has forwarded their letter to the chief electoral officer seeking urgent action. Dalvi said things were beyond the control of the district administration during the Lok Sabha polls. “Then, we could not challenge the reshuffling of personnel. This time, we have requested the chief electoral officer to allow us to keep out women and physically challenged employees from duty outside their areas of posting,” he said.

Dalvi said in his covering letter that the women had faced many problems in 21 Assembly constituencies across Pune district during the Lok Sabha elections. He sought to ensure that no such inconvenience is caused during the Assembly elections.

“Instructions about exempting physically challenged and pregnant women have already been sent out. But everybody on election duty will have to face hardships. All we can try is minimise it,” Debashish Chakraborty, chief electoral officer, Maharashtra, told Newsline.

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