District administrations across Bengal have been sending letters to all state and central government offices, schools and colleges to produce information about employees within the first week of the current month.
The communication is part of an attempt to prepare a database of polling personnel for the forthcoming panchayat polls.
“All districts have been asked to prepare the database of polling personnel as soon as possible. There is a need to check whether every district has a sufficient number of polling personnel to conduct the rural elections. In case any district falls short, there should be a backup plan to get polling personnel from other offices, including those of the central government,” said a senior state government official.
Sources said there were multiple reasons to ensure a sufficient number of polling personnel for the rural polls this year compared to the 2018 panchayat elections and that was why the state government had started the process early.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava of Calcutta High Court on Wednesday extended its stay on the announcement of the date of the panchayat polls till March 9. Furthermore, the government has decided to review and redress all public grievances by March 31.
“So, it appears that polls may not be declared before March 31. In all likelihood, the notification for the polls will be issued in April and the elections could be held at April-end or in early May,” said a senior official.
The authorities are eager to prepare a database of employees for the maximum number of polling personnel as the number of voters has increased by 58.51 lakhs compared to the 2018 panchayat polls. There will be around 5.67 crore voters in panchayat polls this year.
Although the final list of the number of polling booths is yet to be announced, officials said the figure could be around 78,000 across Bengal. As the panchayat polls are conducted on ballots, there will be a five-member team of polling personnel, instead of a four-member team required in an election conducted through EVMs.
"A voter in panchayat polls cast three votes for each of the tiers of the rural bodies. So, there is a direction from the State Election Commission to depute an additional polling employee to each team for managing ballots. So, we have to select around 80,000 additional polling personnel," said an official attached to the election department in East Midnapore.
According to a senior state government official, the compilation of the lists of polling personnel becomes easier if they can take the lists of those employees who had been engaged in the last Assembly or Lok Sabha polls. However, the officials in the districts are facing problems in preparing the lists as a lot of school teachers have been transferred after the 2021 assembly polls.
"The school teachers are the first choice to be deputed as polling personnel in every election. After the 2021 Assembly polls, a large number of teachers from rural schools have been transferred to schools in urban pockets. As a result, we need to collect fresh data from schools," said a state government official.
District officials in at least four Bengal districts confirmed that the transfer of the teachers through Utsashree, an online portal, caused a sheer crisis in preparing the lists of the polling personnel. "It is not that we can't take teachers from urban pockets to depute them in rural polls. But we have to get the fresh database first," said an official in East Burdwan.
Many officials pointed out that the scene of the 2018 panchayat polls was completely different as a lesser number of polling personnel were required to conduct polls since around 35 per cent of seats had gone uncontested.
"As of now, there is little chance of repetition of the 2018 polls as the ruling party may not flex muscles to prevent Opposition parties from fielding candidates. So, we have started the process of arranging more polling personnel this time," said an official in Birbhum--a district where Trinamul won around 84 per cent of the rural body seats uncontested.
