Officials in multiple Bengal districts are struggling to arrange enough polling personnel at a time when the July 8 panchayat polls are only three days away and the State Election Commission has banned deploying contractual government employees on poll duty.
A source said the district administrations had to start rearranging their enlisted polling personnel after the SEC asked for an undertaking from district magistrates confirming they had not deployed contractual staff on poll duty.
"Most of the districts had included anywhere between 750 and 1,200 contractual employees such as para-teachers and part-time lecturers in their list of polling personnel. After the SEC asked for an undertaking, we immediately excluded them from the list. That is why we are facing a manpower crisis. The situation is so critical at many places that employees engaged in other poll-related duties need to be sent to the booths," said a senior state government official.
For Saturday's rural elections, at least 3,69,816 polling personnel are required across Bengal, including a reserve force of 20 per cent.
The state has 61,636 polling booths. Each needs five polling personnel, including a presiding officer. In a few booths, where the number of voters is above 1,250, the SEC has directed the deployment of six polling personnel.
Officials said that in past panchayat polls in Bengal, there were no curbs on using contractual workers.
This time, Calcutta High Court gave an order asking the SEC to refrain from deploying those employees. This has created a situation where each district is facing a shortage of polling personnel ranging from 750 to 1,200.
Officials in many districts such as Birbhum, East Midnapore and North 24-Parganas said that they were still working on arrangements for polling personnel.
In Birbhum, for instance, the administration had to put off poll duty some 750 contractual employees.
"We are now in big trouble.... We are even planning to involve employees assigned the duties to distribute ballots and electoral equipment on poll duty," said an official in Birbhum.
An official said that many state government departments had started writing letters to district magistrates concerned, requesting them to involve a minimum of their employees in poll duty on Saturday, citing staff shortage.
"Departments such as electricity, forest, public works and irrigation have been writing letters to district magistrates asking them to avoid involving their staff because of the scarcity of employees for day-to-day work," said a state government official.
Role of women
In the run-up to the July 8 rural polls, the SEC for the first time allowed district magistrates to involve women employees as poll personnel to make up for the scarcity. But most districts have not involved women, citing security reasons.
Birbhum and Murshidabad have roped in women employees in only around 10 per cent of their booths.
"The State Election Commission did not deploy women as poll personnel in earlier rural polls because of security issues. A few women-run booths are set up in urban pockets during Lok Sabha or Assembly polls. This time we received the sanction to do so for rural polls but we did not involve women employees for security reasons," said an East Midnapore official.
