MADURAI
A large section of polling officials, who underwent training here on Saturday for the upcoming Tirupparankundram byelection, complained about inferior quality of food provided for lunch in a poorly arranged manner.
Roughly 1,500 personnel from different departments, who have been selected for duty at polling stations, underwent training at a private school.
Apart from the reportedly inferior quality of sambhar rice and curd rice, the officials complained that the food was served through a single counter, which resulted in many of them waiting in the queue for more than an hour. They said that similar issue was there in the previous round of training and the training sessions organised for last month’s parliamentary election.
A school teacher, who has been assigned the role of Polling Officer 2, said that it was unacceptable that the revenue officials who organised the training did not think of providing the food at least through more counters. “There were just two huge vessels containing sambhar rice and curd rice, from which all of us were served in paper plates,” he said.
“We are not complaining much about the inferior quality of food. They could have at least distributed it as packed lunch,” he added.
Another official from the School Education department, who has been posted as Polling Officer 1, cited a letter issued by Election Commission of India in 2014, which said a minimum amount of ₹ 150 is allowed per person per day for packed lunch and light refreshment.
“They provided tea and vada in the morning, which some of us did not get. For afternoon, we were provided this sambhar rice and curd rice. I am sure this must not have cost anywhere close to ₹ 150,” she said.
When contacted, District Election Officer S. Nagarajan said, “The issue was not brought to my notice. In the next training session, the grievances of officials will certainly be addressed.”