HC notice to UP SEC on ‘deaths of 135 poll officials’

PRAYAGRAJ: Taking note of the reported deaths of 135 teachers, shiksha mitras and investigators assigned panchayat election duty, the Allahabad HC on Tuesday issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission (UPSEC) and asked why it failed to check non-compliance of Covid guidelines during multiple phases of panchayat elections.
The court further asked why action should not be taken against it and its officials.
A division bench of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar further directed UPSEC to “take immediately measures in the remaining phases of panchayat elections to ensure Covid guidelines are complied with, else action would be taken against officials involved in the election process”.
“At least 200 teachers have lost their lives to Covid-19 within a week of returning from panchayat election duties and over 2,000 others are infected,” prominent unions representing teachers in Uttar Pradesh have said. In separate letters written to CM Yogi Adityanath, the associations have appealed that the counting of votes slated for May 2 be shelved.
The unions also said over 400 family members of the teachers who came in contact have also died. Virendra Mishra, UP spokesperson of Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh, told TOI that teachers will boycott the counting if the government doesn’t postpone it.
TOI had reported earlier that many teachers who died were already ill when the call for poll duty came. Their appeals for leniency were rejected. Skipping election duty invites legal action.
UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri district witnessed arguably the maximum casualties at
28. Among them was Poonam Jaiswal (55), a mother of two children. Her younger sister told TOI, “She had mild symptoms a day after election duty. She tested positive on April 25. Poonam’s health deteriorated on April 26. She died as we were trying to arrange for an oxygen cylinder.”
(Inputs from Sandeep Rai, Deepak Lavania, Kanwardeep Singh & Rajesh Kumar Pandey)