Booth level officers missing in action!

Caption: Election Commission appointed Booth level officers without any basic facilities at a polling booth in Poonamallee

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

If the voters lacked booth slips, the booths lacked booth level officers appointed by the Election commission to help identify the genuine voters in the suburbs.

And at places where it did have, there was no infrastructure or identity card for these officers.

Five to six women were seen sitting under a tree with a list of voters list which was outdated and trying to guide the voters at the Ariangnar Anna Higher Secondary School in Poonamallee.

“We are booth level offices appointed by the Election Commission,” identified the women.

“We are 12 of them. We don’t have identity card and have to sit under this tree,” said another Booth level officer.

Although, the booth level officer had a chair to sit, her counterparts did not have even that. “The duty of ours is to identify the genuinity of voters. But we don’t have proper electoral rolls,” says a booth level officer.

A polling agent, who was seen strolling by, had been taking care of them by providing tea and snacks. The lunch had been provided by the zonal officers who had been continuously on rounds.

However, the booth level officers denied majority of voters did not get booth slips. “We did provide many of the electorate in Poonamallee with booth slips. We do agree some did not get it. But it is just a small amount,” the booth level officer defended.

In Kattupakkam, the booth level officers were seen only in the morning, they vanished as the day progressed. “They were there in the morning. We did not know where they had gone,” said the presiding officer Kavitha