Govt asked to find alternative for teachers on election duty

New Delhi, Aug 6 (UNI) Delhi High Court today asked the Delhi Government to explore the possibilities of assigning the election duties to the clerical staff of other departments other than the primary school teachers as the work heavily burdens them.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Murlidhar had earlier directed the Delhi Government to exclude lady teachers who are pregnant, handicapped or above 58 years, from going door to door for verification of the I-Cards for the elections.

In its reply to the court, the Delhi Government today said they were short of staff so they had to take the services of the school teachers.

A petition was filed by a teachers organisation, Akhil Bhartiya Prathmik Sangh, asking "why only teachers" for the election duty.

They had contended that it was very difficult for the lady teachers to visit door to door to collect data and the students too suffer because of the absence of teachers.

The Court had earlier directed that the government should exclude the teachers from the election duty during the school hours and also not to send pregnant, handicapped and aged ladies for outdoor duties.

The association said it was being increasingly difficult for the teachers to go on election duty and so the government should find alternate people for the job.

The Court directed the Delhi government to explore the possibilities to appoint people from other departments to work for the election duty.

UNI SNG RC KN2004