PANJIM: A contingent of around 700 Goa police constables who are on election duty across three states are facing an ordeal with a majority of these personnel even unable to cast their franchise.
While Goa had around 12 platoons of CISF jawans adding to the strength of Goa police during the Lok Sabha polls, 700-odd constables were deployed at Telangana for their poll duty.
Herald has learnt through reliable sources that the constables boarded a train to Telangana on March 28, where the election was held on April 11. Thereon, they boarded the train to Tumkur district in Karnataka on April 14, for the second phase of elections, held on April 18
“The election duty is hectic. We have been performing our duty diligently but unfortunately, our welfare is not being taken care of as required,” said an IRB personnel.
The “election trip” continued as thereafter their third destination was in Gulbarga district in Karnataka up to April 30. The constables are now proceeding to the northern state of Punjab where elections will be held on May 19, incidentally when Panjim by-poll will be held.
“It’s a three day journey from Gulbarga to Punjab and we are going through a horrible time. We share the seats and moreover, have to accommodate the space near the toilet area of the compartment. Is this not a violation of human rights?” asked another personnel.
Interestingly, as per the rules, the 1st and 2nd IRBians are assigned duty within the State, Maharashtra and Karnataka while the 3rd battalion has jurisdiction in other states too during such national events or emergency situation. However, the rule hasn’t been followed by the very own department as the present troop en-route to Punjab belong from the 2nd battalion.
Along with this, there’s another issue on the casting of votes. Had some of them not raised their voice, all would have lost their right to vote. “When the officers learned that some constables want to exercise their right to vote and are furious over being deprived of their right, around 30 postal ballots was mailed to their homes, however, out of the 700 constables approximately only 300 managed to cast their vote and the rest, which is more than half, did not,” revealed the source.
The personnel said that they were given a form to fill so that ballot papers reach their home, but they were asked to leave the ‘postal address’ column blank. “We were asked to leave the address column blank as they said that they will enter the office address, however, upon reaching here we came to know that our forms were rejected on the basis that these were incomplete. We then filled new forms, at our own expense, entered our own address and then sent it again by speed post,” he said adding that the remaining personnel will get a chance to vote but after the results are declared, which is pointless.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Narayan Sawant, when contacted, declined to comment stating the office will verify details with the police department.
Inspector General of Police Jaspal Singh assured that the issues concerning these constables are taken on priority. “The postal ballots are being delivered to their areas of posting, and efforts are made towards overcoming this issue,” he said explaining that forms of some of these constables were rejected owing to technical problem. “There could be certain instances where the forms were not properly filled. However, it is an electoral matter and efforts have been made in this context”, he added.
