CEO suspends Nalagarh polling staff

Tribune News Service

Solan,May 21

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) today suspended the polling staff of Kashmirpur polling booth in the Nalagarh Assembly segment comprising Sector Officer, two polling officers, a presiding officer and an assistant presiding officer for their negligence in failing to clear the mock poll result data from the control unit before the polling began on Sunday.

Sources said that an error of 36 votes was visible when the sector officer inspected the polling booth to inspect the polling process.

The officials had conducted the required mock poll before the poll where 50 votes had been polled as per the laid procedure and voter verified audit paper trail was also obtained and sealed in a black envelope as per the procedure.

The polling staff, however, failed to delete the mock poll results from the control unit and voting was initiated with 50 votes data being counted in the actual voting. When the error came to the notice of the polling staff, they deleted the entire data, including 36 votes from the control unit, and began afresh.

The data of the 36 votes was, however, intact in the VVPAT machines. The information was communicated to the assistant returning officer who, in turn, apprised the District Returning Officer and later the Chief Electoral Officer. The ARO had also apprised the poling agents of both parties and had also taken their statement as a precautionary measure though none had raised any objection.

Terming it as a gross error the CEO today suspended the entire polling staff of the said polling booth.

This is the first such incidence of gross negligence of the polling officials in the state which has occurred in these Lok Sabha elections.