Two lecturers, school teacher suspended for dereliction of election duty

Jajpur: Two college lecturers and a school teacher were suspended for alleged dereliction of election duty. The trio allegedly failed to report for training classes organised here for the upcoming general elections.

The trio have been identified as Zahiruddin Khan (a government school teacher from Korei block), Harekrushna Das (lecture of Janaki Madhusudan College) and Kulamani Sahu (lecture of  Brahmabarada Junior College).

As per sources, one more teacher was also booked on the same charges but he was not issued suspension notice owing to his health issues.

As per the instruction of Jajpur Collector and District Election Officer (DEO) Ranjan Kumar Das, election preparedness training programme was held at five places in the district. The programme was organised to impart training on various election-related work and processes, operation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines to the Presiding and Fast polling officers.

While the two lecturers were appointed as presiding officers, the assistant teacher was appointed as first polling officer for the upcoming elections. They were directed to report at training classes on Thursday, but failed to report without intimating the concerned authority, informed Das.

"Many officers who didn't attend the training programme, later attended after receiving notice from the district administration. However, the four have been placed under suspension for dereliction of election duty as neither did they attend the training nor did they respond to the notice issued to them," he added