Social organisation Jan Manch has demanded that the district administration should ensure that the polling personnel are able to exercise
their franchise. Jan Manch activists Dr Ashok Lanjewar and Pramod Pande said that in parliamentary elections thousands of polling personnel in the district couldn't cast their vote as only around 1,000 employees had received postal ballots.
Pande said that a large number of government employees were deployed on election duty and as per the district collector the number of such employees in Nagpur district was as high as 30,000.
Dr Lanjewar said that past experience shows that due to improper arrangements made by district administration polling personnel have not been able to cast votes. The administration provides polling personnel with form 12 (as a result of which the employee gets a postal ballot at his/her residence) just as a matter of formality. Common experience is that even if a polling personnel deposits form 12 with the returning officer he/she does not take the pain of sending the postal ballot to the concerned officer.
Jan Manch has demanded that administration should make every polling personnel fill up form No. 12 and the provide a copy of the same to him/her. "In many cases when the polling personnel complain to returning officers that they have not received postal ballots, the officers says that they had not filled form No. 12. A duplicate copy of the form will ensure accountability on part of returning officers," Lanjewar said. He also demanded that a special officer should be deployed to oversee postal ballots.