On polling day, food is the thought for officers in remote locations

Hassan: On election day, one major issue the polling officers are likely to face is to find food near their polling centres. Anticipating such a trouble, the district election officials have decided to arrange food for the officers through the department of public instruction.
There are 2,235 polling stations in Hassan Lok Sabha constituency which include eight assembly constituencies with a total of 16.29 lakh voters. Each polling booth will have a presiding officer, an assistant presiding officer—who is also the first polling officer, a second polling officer and a third polling officer.

On the eve of the polling day, the polling officers will be taken to their respective polling centres along with electronic voting machines (EVMs). Most polling centers will be set up in remote villages away from towns or hoblis.

An officer on condition of anonymity said the polling officers who are deputed to centres away from the towns will have problems in arranging food on the previous day as well as on the polling day as there will be no hotels nearby.

“Usually, the village leaders arrange food for the polling centre staff. But there are instances where the villagers arrange non-vegetarian food and the vegetarian staff find it difficult to get food of their choice. As the EVMs are kept in the booths, they cannot leave the booths and have to sleep on empty stomach,” an officer said.

The district election officer has now decided to arrange food for all the polling booth officers. It has entrusted the job to the department of public instruction’s cluster resource persons (CRP). They have been directed to hold meetings with school headmasters and cooks to prepare the food for election staff at their villages.

As per the directions, the booth officers will be provided tea or coffee at around 3.30 pm and rice or ragi ball with soppina sambar (green leaf sambar) with a palya, pickle and buttermilk for dinner on April 17. On the polling day, the officers will be provided with vegetable pulav or uppittu and rice sambar and buttermilk in the afternoon. In the evening, the officers will be provided with tea and snacks.

Speaking to TOI, deputy commissioner, Hassan, Priyanka Mary said the initiative had been taken as polling officers often had difficulty in arranging food for themselves. “We will be paying the amount to zilla panchayat. They will distribute the amount to the concerned school heads who will procure the food items. We are not using the provisions of mid-day meal scheme but procuring provision separately for the election purpose. The food will be prepared and served to polling officials. The amount will be later deducted from the polling officers remunerations as we are providing the food,” she said.