Photo used for indicative purpose only. Source: Internet

Shimla, Nov 30
More than 1000 Employees have knocked on the door of chief Electoral Officer Manish Garg for not receiving the Postal ballot. They complain that it was stolen or lost during the distribution process.
A spokesman of the state election department confirmed that the number of complaints might go above one thousand. We have ordered action against the errant officials as complaints from all over the state of allegedly missing Postal ballots are pouring in large numbers. We couldn’t confirm the reason for the non-availability of Postal votes, but around one thousand Employees have complained of not receiving it so far.
The ECI has also dispatched postal ballots to all Services voters; however, the process of returning the ballot is prolonged. We are expecting that most servicemen in Indian Armed and paramilitary forces will dispatch back their postal vote before December 8. ECI expects around a seven to eight per cent swing in the state Polling, but the service voters need to show such interest. We have appealed through Media to all Ex-servicemen to participate in polling as it would strengthen electoral democracy.
Moreover, if there were any laxity on account of any Election Officer, action would be taken. The election department would issue an order to probe the complaint(s), ensuring the voting by the eligible, they stated.

Meanwhile, along with the opposition Congress, several Himachal Pradesh government and other state-affiliated bodies employees are indirectly blaming the State government machinery for not receiving the postal ballot.
Pertinent to mention that State Employees, considered a powerful vote bank, are not happy with the government as they are pressing to restore the old Pension System after the withdrawal of the discriminatory new Pension Scheme. Due to this Election issue, there is a very high swing in voting percentage, and the benefit of heavy polling may go to Congress candidates. In the matter, recently, the state government not only complained to the ECI but also warned employees not to breach the MCC by openly taking sides with Congress. However, employees never mentioned Congress; instead, they appealed to vote for OPS.

There are 412 candidates in the fray, including 24 female, while 388 are male candidates. There are around 55,92,828 total voters in the state.

Missing Postal ballot of Employees: Cong may knock door of HP high court
Nine days are left for counting of votes for the assembly election results but State government employees and Opposition party is still fighting on the ground amidst controversy of missing postal ballots said IN Mehta, Congress Legal Cell convener. Adding, that party may knock the door of high court  if these complaints are not taken into consideration.
Member of Congress Legal Cell, Pranay Pratap, said that many postal ballots of service voters and employees on election duty have not yet been returned.  This is unfortunate .  The legal cell of the Congress has already complained about this to the Election Commission. Pratap said that the postal department is not giving receipt to the employees who have sent their ballot papers through post.  Therefore, instructions should be given to the postal department to send postal ballots to the Election Commission.
There are 66811 Services Voter in the state including 22 NRI. Highest 2187 Services voters are in Sujanpur of Hamirpur district followed by 2131 in Jogindernagar of Mandi. Around 25000 state Employees including state police and home gaurd jawans took parts in the Election process.

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