Pune: The Pune district election office (DEO) issued around 3,500 show-cause notices to govt employees across ranks for dereliction of election duties . Pune collector and district election officer Suhas Diwase told TOI that employees across ranks, from clerks to senior officials, were found dodging mandatory election training sessions with false excuses. "Some departments have completely failed to depute their staff for training.
Strict action will be taken against them," he said. He said all those who did not attend the sessions were served notices. A senior election department official said penal action could follow if employees fail to respond to the notices.
The Pune district has enlisted 60,000 staff for election duty, with training sessions underway before polling on Nov 20. Earlier, during Lok Sabha elections, the Pune district collector issued notices to 7,000 government employees for neglecting their election duties. Election officials said manpower remains a major challenge for conducting the elections and retaining trained manpower on polling day is of crucial importance.
The indicted employees have been directed to give an explanation for their absence from the training, they said. "Those having genuine reasons have been excused," added officials. "At each polling station, there are a minimum of four staffers and at the eleventh hour, one is in need of more govt staffers to complete the polling activity.
Hence, additional manpower is made available to each centre.