Show-cause notices served for not attending election training

Coimbatore: The election department has issued show-cause notices to some government employees for not showing up for an election training session.
The training sessions for polling personnel, including government teachers and personnel from other government departments, was scheduled on March 24 and 31 and on April 7, 14 and 17. The show-cause notices have been sent to those who had not reported for the session on March 24.

Teachers said the notices reached the schools past Friday.

Sources in the school education department said a total of 296 teachers had received the show-cause notices and they had forwarded them to the respective schools. “The school education department received the notices from the district administration and we have forwarded them to the respective schools,” said a source.

However, teachers said those, who had attended the session, have also been served notices. While the teachers who had not shown up for the session have given valid reasons for their absence as reply to the show-cause notice, many who had attended the session and still got the notices are confused as what to do.

“The teachers, who had attended the session were given an acknowledgement form, which had a bar code, which when scanned would register their attendance. Many teachers, who got the acknowledgement slips, also have been given show-cause notices. When inquired, we got a reply that there must have been some technical glitch in the process of scanning,” said a teacher.

Sources said as many as 2,000 personnel in the district have been given the show-cause notices

. “The notices are machine generated and it could be a technical glitch that those who attended also have been given the notices,” a teacher added.