Bhubaneswar, Jan 31: Before the upcoming Panchayat elections, today the State Election Commission announced ex-gratia and compensation to the kin of the on-duty polling officials in case of their death or major injuries.
The employees have been classified into two groups by the SEC. Employees responsible for vote count, observers, field officers, magistrates, police, home guards, forest rangers, village wardens, government and private drivers and helpers during poll duty have been included in Category-A while the CRPF personnel have been included in Category-B. It’s decided that if any employee of Category A employed in poll duty dies of any extremist activities like attack by anti-socials or the Maoists, land mine blast, then his/her family would be provided with an ex-gratia of Rs 20 lakh in case of his/her death while Rs 10 lakh compensation would be provided if he/she is permanently disabled due to extremist activities. And those who will be permanently disabled or have lost their eyesight during their tour, their family would be provided with Rs 5 lakh compensation. Apart from this, the seriously injured polling staff on duty would be provided with a compensation of Rs 2 lakh. Under Category-B, if any CRPF personnel during poll duty dies of any extremist attack, his family would receive an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh and if a CRPF personnel who is on tour to polling booths, dies of similar circumstances, his family would receive Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia. Likewise, if any CRPF personnel during poll duty is permanently disabled due to similar attack or while on tour, his family will receive compensation of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh respectively. And the seriously injured CRPF personnel would be given Rs 1 lakh as compensation.
