Students from NCC and NSS not to be deployed for work

This decision was also taken because of the examinations that are fast approaching.

Usually, the Election Commission of India (ECI) would avail the services of the senior division of NCC cadets and other students involved in social activities for election duty. It was up to the election officials at the State and district levels to decide how many students would be deployed for this work.

Only students aged above 18 years are deployed; they would be clustered in small, cohesive groups of 8 to 20 members under the supervision of a permanent instructor staff or an associate NCC officer.

However, for this Assembly election, it has been decided not to send them on election works.

Referring to a circular issued by Director General of NCC to ECI, the State and district election officials and also district administrations were directed not to deploy NCC cadets or NSS volunteers on election duty.

This came after college managements requested the authorities in this regard, pointing out that students would have semester examinations and other competitive exams. Thus, it would not be fair to depute them on the poll duty, which would affect their preparations.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department said usually, students would be available at polling booths to help disabled persons and also to regulate the crowd. “In addition, they help officials arranging EVM boxes in the polling booths and also help the police in maintaining discipline,” he said.

The official added that during the initial days of the pandemic, the NCC had supported the civilian authorities by extending the services of cadets under ‘Exercise NCC Yogdan’. “They helped front-line workers for relief efforts in battling the pandemic,” he said.