Hyderabad: In preparation to the General Elections 2019, election duty orders have been issued to some 1.8 lakh employees for duties as Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers, Other Polling Officers and Micro Observers. In addition to this, it is estimated that another one lakh or more people will be involved in various other election duties, including those of web casters, videographers, drivers, cleaners and so on. Special efforts were being made across the State to ensure that all these people are able to vote and participate in the election.
While all employees on election duty were issued postal ballots in the Telangana Legislative Assembly Elections, it is expected that a majority of people on election duty will be able to cast their votes using Election Duty Certificates (EDC) this time. EDCs are issued to those people, who are voters of the same Parliamentary Constituency where they are also on election duty and they permit the EDC holder to vote at any polling station within the Parliamentary Constituency.
The CEO Telangana has brought in transparency and accountability to the process of issuing postal ballots and EDCs by initiating a state wide IT platform PBSoft which monitors the issual of postal ballots/EDCs to those on election duty. It is expected that this system will minimize gaps and ensure access to voting rights to all those on election duty.
Employees on election duty and citizens participating in the election process in the role of web casters, videographers are urged to ensure that they submit correctly filled Form 12/12A as applicable along with their electoral roll details in the office of their District Collector, who issued duty orders in the next one week. They were also urged to attend trainings with necessary documents so that preparation of their postal ballots and EDCs can take place in time to enable them to vote. (NSS)
