Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 25: The Election Commission has successfully conducted election for all the Lok Sabha constituencies in the states in two phases, barring a few minor incidents. The commission had drawn support from police, intelligence wing, education and revenue departments etc to hold the election. The staff have worked very hard to see that there are no lapses.

During the election process, a police constable and seven persons posted on election duty have died. Most of them passed away due to heart attack. This shows the amount of pressure the election staff undergo when handling election work, unnoticed by the general public.

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There has been a demand from some to exempt people aged above 50 and others suffering from serious ailments, from being posted for election duties. Some have also suggested to simplify procedure relating to the work to be attended to at the concluding stage of the day. There were incidents of friction and fight between the officials relating to this work in a few cases.

The eight staff who died when discharging election work were Devendrappa, Ravikanth Rama Mallashekhar, Shivaputrappa, Shantamurthy, Suresh Bheemappa Tippeswarmy, H A Balibanth and Venkatalakshmi. An IAS officer of the election commission said that it is proposed to pay a sum of Rs 70 lac as compensation to the families of people who die when discharging election-related duties in addition to the government facilities for which they are already eligible. At the same time, he clarified that there is no proposal currently to exempt people aged above 50 from being posted for election work.