Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 23: Over 10,213 government employees were not deployed for election duty in the recently concluded Assembly polls in the state.

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This was informed by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in his reply to a starred question raised by VPP MLA Adelbert Nongrum tabled in the Assembly today.

Sangma said however, the above employees were exempted due to various reasons on grounds such as medical emergencies, employees due to retirement, medical practitioners, veterinary doctors, territorial staff of forest and wildlife or sanctuary, AIR, Doordarshan, female staff, relatives of contesting candidates etc and all such categories that are duly exempted under Section 3.3.2 of the Returning Officers Handbook of the Election Commission of India, who stand exempted as per ECI rules and guidelines.

He said that a total of 822 teachers, not being government employees, were appointed for election duty. However, the majority of them were kept as reserves and not deployed for election duty as per reports received from the district.

On whether the services conduct rules which were quoted in the election appointment order apply to such teachers, Sangma said the poll officials are duly appointed under Section 26 of the Representation of the People Act 1951.

As per the above Section, District Election Officers are at liberty to requisition the services of teachers.

Additionally, as per Section 27 of the RTE Act 2009, it is highlighted that “No teacher shall be deployed for any non-educational purposes other than the decennial population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to the local authority or the state legislatures or parliament, as the case may be.”

The Chief Minister, however, said that teachers not being government employees are not debarred from working for any candidate in the elections or for a political party but they cannot be appointed for election duty.