BARIPADA: An official goof-up in selection of election officers for the ensuing panchayat polls has raised eyebrows in Mayurbhanj district. Two gangmen of the Public Works Department (PWD) in Morada block have been assigned the job of presiding officers (POs) for two booths in the block. The two gangmen __ Siris Chandra Naik and Mrutyunjay Majhi __ appointed as POs for booths 46 and 48 respectively, have received letters asking them to attend the training sessions that started on Saturday. However, when the two expressed their inability to act as POs, BDO SK Mohanty came to know about the faux pas and assured to correct it. Even some contractual teachers have been appointed as presiding officers and regular teachers asked to assist them as polling officers. A regular teacher of Baramaa’il High School, Budhiram Barik, has been asked to officiate as first polling officer to assist a contractual teacher of Chadheigaon High School Tusarkanta Patra, who has been appointed PO. Similarly, Jayaram Mahanta, Chandra Mohan Mahanta and Sanjib Mishra of Baramaa’il High School, who could have been presiding officers, have been appointed second polling officer and first polling officer respectively. This gaffe too has been brought to the notice of the block authorities. The BDO admitted that the two gangmen were initially listed as POs by the block officials. “When the list was prepared as per the details given by the respective offices, they were mentioned as GM of PWD. So the officials mistook them as general managers instead of gangmen. We have replaced Naik and Majhi with two other eligible officials,” he said. The BDO, however, said there is nothing wrong for a contractual teacher to officiate as PO. “We have got the list from the CI of Schools office mentioning their designation as assistant teachers but there was no mention of contractual or regular,” he added. According to the State Election Commission (SEC) guidelines, a Government employee drawing a basic pay of ` 7,500 and above can be appointed a PO.
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