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Are Village Volunteers Not Government Staff?

Are Village Volunteers Not Government Staff?

The YSR Congress party government led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy introduced the village volunteer system with a view to extends the fruits of the various government schemes to the door steps of the people.

More than two lakh village volunteers were recruited by the Jagan government on outsourcing basis through a proper recruitment test and the government was paying them from the panchayat raj department budget.

All said and done, they are being considered as the outsourced government employees and they have been discharging the duties allotted to them by the government. 

But state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar does not feel so. He is, perhaps, under the impression that all the village volunteers are the YSR Congress party workers appointed to build a vote bank for the party.

That is precisely why Nimmagadda gave strict instructions to the panchayat raj department authorities not to utilise the services of village volunteers in the gram panchayat elections, apparently under the impression that they would manipulate the voting in favour of the ruling party.

At a video conference held with the district collectors along with chief secretary Adityanath Das and director general of police Gautam Sawang on Wednesday, Nimmagadda directed that no election duty should be entrusted to the village volunteers. 

“They should be kept away from the polling and other election-related works. If there is a shortage of staff in the elections, I have a different plan. If necessary, we shall rope in central forces,” he said.

Interestingly, Nimmagadda welcomed the decision of the government to encourage unanimous elections in the gram panchayats. However, the SEC would ensure that there would be no forcible unanimous elections.

“Special officer Sanjay will look after the prevention of forced unanimous elections,” he added.

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