Exemption pleas flood CEO’s office | Thiruvananthapuram News – Times of India – Inergency

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the announcement of the general elections and procedures to depute officials to election duties having been initiated, requests to exempt certain categories of officials also have also started pouring in.
With requests coming in from various corners, the election commission (EC) has categorically clarified that except those included in essential services, or which have been decided by the EC, no other category of officials will be spared from being deputed for election duty.Requests began to flood the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) seeking exemption even before the election commission announced the election date. The income tax commissioner in the state wrote to the CEO in Feb itself requesting that tax officials be exempted from election duty citing their other official commitments. To this, EC replied that their request cannot be considered and election duties are for a very limited period.
The panchayat officers’ association also requested the commission to exempt panchayat officials from election duties, but they have also been turned down.
The higher secondary school principals’ association of Kerala also has sought exemption citing that principals have heavy responsibilities as they don’t get help even from non-teaching staff. They also have the responsibility of ensuring that all preparations in their respective institutions, where polling booths will be set up, are intact. So the association requested that principals be exempted from election duties. However, the request is unlikely to be honoured.
However, the commission has exempted certain categories of officials from being requisitioned for election duty, in view of the essential nature of duties discharged by them. The categories include senior staff of Indian forest service, doctors, nurses and ANMs, ayurvedic, unani and homeopathy officers of Ayush department, doctors and compounders working in veterinary hospitals, staff of All-India Radio and Doordarshan, officers of Food Corporation of India, officers of rural branch of commercial banks if it is a single-officer branch and operational officers and staff of UPSC. Also, all officers who are due to retire in six months or those who have already retired but are in service due to extension or those who have been re-employed, have been exempted from election duties.
In the case of judicial officers or judicial staff, who are asked to perform election duty in exceptional circumstances, prior permission of the respective high courts is sought.