Hundreds of irate employees were forced to return from polling booths without casting their postal ballot, owing to poor arrangements across Krishna district on Friday.
The employees, who braved scorching heat to turn up at the polling booths to exercise their franchise, were left fuming over the lack of arrangements for polling.
In the district headquarters of Machilipatnam, dozens of employees including women had to stand under the open sky for hours, waiting for their turn to cast their vote.
Officials had set up only one polling booth at Hindu Degree College in Machilipatnam, where over 2,500 voters were supposed to cast their vote. On being alerted by the police about the prevailing tension, officials swung into action and set up three more booths at different intervals by evening.
“The documentation procedure requires at least ten minutes to cast a vote. Given the procedure, officials should have planned it accordingly and should have set up the required number of polling booths to avoid chaos,” a schoolteacher told The Hindu.
Krishna District Collector A. Md. Imtiaz said that the polling percentage was 30% in urban areas and 55% in rural areas across Krishna district on Friday.
Voting up to April 8
“The Returning Officers have been directed to conduct the postal ballot voting up to April 8, enabling all employees to cast their vote. A total of 30,000 employees, who were selected to be deployed in the election on April 11, were given the opportunity to cast their vote through postal ballot,” said Mr. Imtiaz.