Mandleshwar (Madhya Pradesh): A significant issue has emerged in Mandleshwar regarding the voting rights of approximately 30 daily wage employees of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED).
These employees, crucial to various departmental operations, were reportedly unable to exercise their right to vote in the recently held Lok Sabha elections due to a series of unforeseen circumstances and a lack of information.
Jitendra Verma, the Narmada Project unit president of the Madhya Pradesh Small Wage Employees Union, shed light on the matter, explaining that some employees had received election duty orders, while others were appointed as special police officers (SPOs) without prior notice.
This sudden change in their roles and responsibilities left them with no time to apply for postal ballots, which could have allowed them to vote despite their duty assignments. Verma further elaborated that the PHED did not inform the employees about the possibility of voting via postal ballot before assigning them duties.
Additionally, some employees were unexpectedly sent to remote police stations for election duty without formal duty orders or sufficient guidance. SDM Anil Kumar Jain clarified the process for applying for postal ballots, stating that employees need to attach a copy of their duty order when applying. However, this crucial step was not followed by the PHED employees, leading to their disenfranchisement and the inability to cast their votes in the recent elections.
