UP panchayat elections: Reconsider compensation to poll officers who died of COVID19, should be at least Rs 1 crore — Allahabad HC tells govt, SEC
“To compensate the loss of life of the family’s bread earner and that too because of a deliberate act on part of the State and the State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in absence of RT-PCR support, the compensation must be at least to the tune of Rs one crore," the court said.
The counsel for the State Election Commission (SEC) Tarun Agrawal told the court that a total of 77 polling officers had died across 28 districts.
In the wake of deaths of the polling officers who died after contracting COVID19 during their election duty in the recently concluded rural body elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court, on May 12, asked the state government and the State Election Commission to pay a compensation of at least Rs 1 crore (10 million rupees).
The court stated that the decision to make these polling officers work during the panchayat elections was a “deliberate act on the part of the State and State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in the absence of RTPCR support”.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Siddharth Verma and Justice Ajit Kumar made the observation while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
On May 7, the state government had informed the court that it had decided to give compensation of Rs 30 lakh (3 million rupees) to the families of polling officers who passed away due to COVID19.
“To compensate the loss of life of the family’s bread earner and that too because of a deliberate act on part of the State and the State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in absence of RT-PCR support, the compensation must be at least to the tune of Rs one crore. We hope that the State Election Commission and the government will rethink the amount of compensation and come back to us on the next date fixed,” the court observed.
The lawyers on behalf of the polling officers submitted that “the amount decided by Government was too meager” considering the threat of pandemic “which was well known to the state government as well as SEC” and yet the teachers, investigators and Shiksha Mitras were forced to take the risk.
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The counsel for the State Election Commission (SEC) Tarun Agrawal told the court that a total of 77 polling officers had died across 28 districts.
He also stated that reports from other districts were still awaited.