Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, July 16: The Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Simrandeep Singh today raised the issue of increasing honorarium to the polling parties deployed in difficult regions like Ladakh, Gurez and Kupwara with the Election Commission of India in the video conference taken by Vinod Zutshi, Deputy Election Commissioner of India.
“It is unfair to pay the same honorarium of Rs 1150 to the polling officers deployed in an easy district like Jammu or Samba as well as in a difficult district like Leh”, he said.
He stressed for factoring the difficulty level of the place of deployment of a polling party. Further, the DC pointed out that in difficult districts like Leh, the polling personnel are paid honorarium for only one polling day but in most of the cases, the polling parties are deployed two to three days in advance and hence should be paid for all these additional days at the same rate.
Moreover, the DC strongly raised the point for paying honorarium to Class-4 employees who are instrumental in packing postal ballots, packing polling material and receiving the polling parties late in the night.
The Deputy Election Commissioner agreed to all these proposals and assured to approve them before the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
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