Ghatkopar school staffers 'kidnapped' by Maharashtra government

What should have been a onceaweek or a twiceaweek job for Narayan Subramaniam and Vishnu Sharma has turned out to be an entire yearrsquos labour And therersquos still no end in sightA resident of Narayan Nagar in Ghatkopar West interacts with centre lab assistant Narayan Subramaniam and right peon Vishnu Sharma While on election duty the two have covered homes between Powai and Kurla since May 2015 having to skip school duty entirely PicsDatta KumbharOn May 28 2015 Subramaniam 54 and Sharma 42 mdash who work as lab assistant and peon respectively at Ghatkoparrsquos North Bombay Welfare Societyrsquos High School mdash were deputed as field officers after a letter was received by the school by the district election officer168 of the Chandivli Vidhansabha Matadar Sangh asking for them specifically The school headmaster Ashok Kumarrsquos four letters since then to the said officer and also the previous Suburban Collector Shekhar Channe who held the office till April 2016 has met with no response In their absence the governmentaided schoolrsquos functioning has been affected since it canrsquot hire staff to replace themOften Narayan Subramaniam Right and Vishnu Sharma left end up meeting disgruntled residents such as Sayyad Mohammed Kamar centre He shouted at the two saying ldquoI have been staying in this area for years Out of 18 members of my family including relatives all of whom stay close by only my name is missing from the electoral list I have not been able to vote for the last two elections due to this Why am I being deprived of my right to voterdquo The duo could only ask him to approach the local election office assuring him of all assistance requiredIn the meanwhile while Subramaniam and Sharma continue their work as booth level officers BLOs without training or briefing they have to travel doortodoor between Powai and Kurla the assembly constituency they have been assigned without any reimbursement for transport food most of their meals have to be taken on the road or even the honorarium of Rs 6000 per year paid to such staff on either a yearly or halfyearly basisLast May Ashok Kumar the headmaster of Ghatkoparrsquos North Bombay Welfare Societyrsquos High School received a letter from district election officer 168 Chandivli asking that Subramaniam and Sharma report for electoral duty The letter said the institute would be liable for punishment under the Representation Of People Act 1951 if there was noncomplianceldquoWe were asked to submit a cancelled cheque which we did a couple of weeks ago but we are not sure if anything will come into our bank accounts We had to also spend for the revenue stamp of Re 1 and even the lamination charges for our identity cards We do not even get a complementary tea when we visit the election office for submissionrdquo shrugged SubramaniamNot an easy jobA circular by Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya dated March 11 2015 states that as per directives of the Election Commission of India between March 1 2015 and July 31 2015 work would begin on the National Electoral Rolls Purification and Authentication Programme NERPAP purification signifies the updation of names on the list ie updating names photographs and addresses BLOs would be appointed for this by government offices and would have to do this work in addition to the work they do at their parent establishments However the circular clarifies that the BLOs canrsquot be made to work beyond the stipulated time which ranges from 48 days and 96 days ie once a week or twice a week Whoever appointed Subramaniam and Sharma and most likely a horde of other BLOs in the city doesnrsquot seem to have understood thisldquoOur first task when we reported to the Vidhyavihar electoral office was to enrol firsttime voters We had to check their Aadhaar cards and addresses and register their names in the electoral list This was a doortodoor exercise and went on from June to September On an average wersquod register 3040 new applicants every day Some days the number would near 100rdquo said SubramaniamAfter September they were tasked with checking the residential votersrsquo list Each member of the team mdash it was initially 150 mdash was given four electoral booklets each with details of more than 800 voters These had to be verified with the given address photograph and contact details had to be taken for reference Besides ensuring the missing photos were submitted names of those who had died or moved from that residence had to be deleted and thus stated in the listldquoNo specific training was provided to us All we were given was the area to work in Usually these were slums where it is difficult to locate and identify each address as most are incomplete We have to go showing photographs to people and not everyone wants to helprdquo said SubramaniamSharma added that often mdash a previous BLOs botchedup work mdash either left incomplete due to reassignment callousness or simply because therersquos no supervisor to ensure that a thorough job has been done mdash leaves residents irked ldquoWhen we revisit such slumdwellers they start shouting and yelling at us Even pasting the election commission notice is a challenge as the glue provided by the government does not even stick a paper We have to buy our ownrdquo he saidBoth say that while some staffers mdash from the Employees Provident Fund EPF and other agencies mdash were sent back to their parent organisation after their office requested them back their own schoolrsquos letters were ignored Therersquos no attendance system either ldquoWe are expected to complete the booklet in a week or fortnight We do what we can and leave the rest blankrdquo Sharma saidThe school needs themKumar the schoolrsquos headmaster said Subramaniam is the only school lab assistant and has to manage all three laboratories physics chemistry and biology ldquoHis absence was felt while conducting the practical sessions for Board exams of Std X The teaching faculty had to work extra hours to ensure that the studentsrsquo practical exams were not affectedrdquoSharma he said is the primary section peon and among the three to help the 17 teaching staff with the administering of 1103 students ldquoThere are two clerical staff posts Both have been vacant for six years for want of civic approval and of the four sanctioned posts of peons only three are on rolls including Sharmardquo he addedKumar added that while the norm is that the election office requests the organistion to send a certain number of staff who are then nominated by the head of department in this case Subramiam and Sharma were specifically asked for specifically The letter by district election officer168 Chandivli on May 19 2015 said the institute would be liable for punishment under the Representation Of People Act 1951 if there was noncomplianceldquoThe school management is not against putting the staff for doing election work but if the staff gets engaged for an entire academic year then it is surely a problem for running the schoolrdquo said a senior member of the school administrationAn official from the suburban collectorrsquos office at Bandra said ldquoWe have received the letter from the said school and the same will be put up before the new suburban collector for necessary actionrdquoNot done as per bookA senior official from the election department at Mantralaya said that the state requires 88000 staff across Maharashtra for conducting electoral work which is a continuous process ldquoHowever we only have 47000 staff at present most of them from the revenue department and around 8000 staff including non teaching school staff BMC sales tax BEST and other centralstate government establishmentsrdquo he saidThe officer clarified that an honorarium of R6000 per year is paid to the staff on either halfyearly or yearly basis for the work About the case of Subramiam and Sharma he said ldquoWe will look into this case this should not be happening at allrdquoState Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya said ldquoWe will set up a mechanism to ensure that BLOs are made to work only for a specified period Instructions for implementing the same will be passed on to collectors across the state at the earliest BLOs cannot be used throughout the year it will cause an adverse affectrdquoNitin Gadre Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra added that the People Representation Act of 1951 does not expect the election department to have their own field staff and therefore it has to depend on staff from other government institutions However he clarified that overusing of BLO staff for electoral work is not accepted and will be looked intoRTI activist and former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said ldquoEspecially staffers at education institutes should not be taken away for such a long duration for electoral work Asking for staff without consent of the institution is illegal use of power Powers are given to officials are subject to rules and regulations and no one has unlimited powers not even the President and the prime ministerrdquo