Women on poll duty faced lack of basic amenities

District election officer and collector Chandrakant Dalvi said although the government machinery tried its best to provide basic amenities like sanitation, water and accommodation to the women officials on election duty, they may have faced some problems.

Many women members, including teachers, engaged in poll duty had earlier complained about the lack of basic amenities provided by the election authorities during polls. A few of them, who were deployed at various polling stations in the Pune and neighbouring areas, had said there was chaos at the polling stations.

A professor from a Pune college said she was deputed at a polling station in a municipal school in Chinchwad run by Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), but there was no proper sanitation and drinking water facility for the staff of around 100 people.

“All the staff had to stay in a one big hall with no proper mattresses and even there was no power in the night,” she said.

Another professor said, “I was assigned the duty at a polling station at Indapur.” She said the staff was inadequately trained, which resulted in chaos on the polling day.
Another teacher who was deployed at a polling station at the Pune Cantonment Board’s Vasudeo Balwant Phadke School said there were no proper toilet facilities for the women staff.

Others said no adequate arrangements were made for the large number of women officials deployed on poll duty. “We had to carry our own luggage from one place to the other as no proper facility was provided to us,” she said, explaining that she was sent to Indapur tehsil on election duty.

She said around 150 women members were deployed on election duty and had to stay put at a school in Nare Ambegaon before they were assigned their duties by the district administration. “There was only one toilet to cater to 150 women, which is indeed unfortunate.”

Dalvi, however, said, “There might have been some problems but, overall, we provided basic amenities to most of them.”