650 govt staff to face action for skipping civic poll training

The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) — which is the nodal agency to conduct civic polls — had given one-week training to the teachers and government staff. The sessions included videos highlighting duties of the polling personnel and hands-on training on the use of ballot papers and among others.

But, a senior official from the TNSEC told DT Next that about 650 government staff, including teachers, did not attend the training programme.

“Some of them have attended only half of the training sessions and a few of them bunked the whole programme,” he said adding that show cause notice have been sent to those who have not reported for the session, seeking explanation for their absence.

The official said that leave for only valid reasons such as on medical grounds would be accepted and those staff would have to attend a separate training programme in couple of days. “If we do not get a satisfactory reply, action will be taken against them,”he said.

The official added that the government staff who attended the training session were given application forms with a bar code. Scanning it would mark their attendance. “They were also offered an acknowledgement slip for attending the session,” he said.

Sources from the School Education Department also said that about 150 teachers have received show cause notices. “Most of them have responded to it,”he added.