With the crucial Assembly elections to five states scheduled to kick-start later this month, the central government too has swung into action with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) writing to all ministries, departments and central government organisations to strictly ensure that all central government employees registered as voters in the poll-bound states are granted special leave for the polling.
The move, according to senior officials, is not just aimed at ensuring a higher turnout during the Assembly elections but also providing a level-playing field to all government employees for voting. Sources said the DoPT has directed all ministries and departments to ensure that their directions are strictly complied with.
Even though the government departments are supposed to provide leave to their employees but the rule is not strictly enforced. This time around, things will be different as the DoPT will maintain a proper record of how many government employees availed the facility.
In an attempt to ensure that the leave provision is not misused the concerned ministries and departments will put a monitoring mechanism in place to ensure that the officials granted leave for polling have indeed cast their vote.
“This is not very difficult as once the polling is over we will get a list of people who have voted from the state electoral office and compare the names. In case it comes to the notice of the authorities that the employee misused the special leave granted to him then disciplinary action will be initiated against him,” an official said.