Operation success, patient no more: Niloufer Class IV staff sent for voter enumeration
Sweepers, washers, attenders and others on deputation as BLOs!
Hyderabad: With voters’ lists regularly becoming targets of opposition critique, it appears that there are people now who are ready to put spanner in the works at the entry level itself!
In a clear example of abdication of responsibility, senior officials in the Niloufer Hospital, who were supposed to attend the voter enumeration duties as booth level officers (BLOs), instead sent class four employees like sweepers, washers and others on “deputation” as BLOs. These poor ‘dutiful’ employees found themselves in a catch-22 situation when they were asked to upload the updated enumeration particulars using computers.
For the record perhaps, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has taken up the task of enumeration of voters for preparation of voters list ahead of the civic elections in the city. The corporation wrote to different departments asking them to send staff on deputation basis for involving them in the enumeration process by taking house to house survey. In effect, such staff will be checking particulars like change of addresses, dead voters etc.
The corporation had written to Niloufer asking for 10 persons to be sent on deputation. However, instead of sending names of senior assistants and junior assistants as is the norm, the hospital management sent names of Class IV employees like assistant dhobi, attenders, telephone attenders, lab assistants, sweepers as BLOs.
These class IV employees were sent WhatsApp messages asking them to attend duties in the Nampally Assembly constituency from March 1. The startled staff, unaware of the election responsibilities thrust on them, wanted to be removed from these duties. However, they were allegedly threatened that memos could be issued against them if they don’t attend their newly assigned duties.
Left with no other option, the 10 employees joined duties from March 2.
However, the biggest challenge these employees faced was to upload data. The GHMC had asked them to upload the data in the BLO app in the Guddimalkapur office. The employees were unable to understand how to proceed as they lack computer knowledge. They urged the hospital management to step in to relieve them of the enumeration duties.
“How can they send Class IV employees for such an important work? This is running away from the responsibilities. The GHMC authorities should intervene and relieve these employees,” said a senior official. When asked whether medical staff can be taken on the enumeration duties, the official said that generally senior assistants and junior assistants doing administrative and clerical work are assigned for these deputations but not doctors.
