Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Feb 9: Deputy commissioner(DC) of Dakshina Kannada district, A B Ibrahim, stressed that officials deputed on election duty for the coming zilla and taluk panchayat elections will not get any exemption from attending to their duties. He warned them of disciplinary action if they still choose to stay away from discharing their election duties.

He was addressing a meeting of officials held at the auditorium of his office on Monday February 8 over arrangements made for the elections.

"We have been getting requests from a large number employees seeking to exclude themselves from deployment on election duty. Many have approached us for exempting them, without any genuine reasons, and applications on health grounds not supported by medical certificates have been submitted. If any of the employees have genuine medical conditions which thwart them from doing work during election, they should approach my office personally and hand over the requests supported by documents. If employees posted to election duty try to dither from discharging duties by putting forth lame reasons, they will face disciplinary action," he stated.

The DC also expressed his unhappiness over the tahsildars who have received such requests from employees. He instructed them not to receive such requests under any circumstances henceforth.

Ibrahim informed that training has been scheduled for election sector officials on February 11 and booth officials on February 13. He added that video recording will be done in 25 percent of polling booths, and indelible ink will be applied to the right thumbs of voters.