Several govt employees miss voting

Tura/Shillong, Mar 2: Several government employees, particularly officials of the Education Department and police personnel, have failed to cast their votes for various reasons.

A senior education official in Tura said he could not vote as travelling to his town would have cost him three days The SSLC examinations will start from March 3, a day after the counting, and most of the officials are busy with the preparatory works.

The HSSLC examinations was initially slated for March 1 but was postponed to March 3 owing to the counting of votes.

In Shillong, a group of police personnel approached the deputy commissioner of East Khasi Hills with the complaint that they could not cast their votes owing to election duty.

Also, about 50% of the teachers were on election duty, “which made the preparations for the boards difficult” owing to shortage of staff, informed an official.

When apprised of the situation about teachers, there was no feedback from CEO Frederick R Kharkongor. However, on the issue of the police personnel, he said the query was forwarded to the election official of East Khasi Hills. Later, the deputy commissioner, SC Sadhu, said he would look into the problems.

Altogether 52,700 students (30,205 female students and 22,495 male students) from 1,839 institutions will write SSLC examinations at 157 centres. For HSSLC, 32,006 students (25,900 in arts stream, 3,684 in science stream and 2,405 in commerce) from 391 institutions will write examinations at 106 centres.