After the High Court of Allahabad took cognizance of the alleged death of 135 polling officers in the state due to COVID-19. The bench comprising of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar were informed by the State Government that it will be compensation of Rs 30,00,000/- to the families of the deceased polling officers.
Last Friday, SEC’s counsel Tarun Agrawal enlightened the Court that so far, 77 deaths have been reported from 28 districts and sought a week’s time to come up with reports from other districts. He also sought time to file responses concerning the role of the State Election Commission in conducting elections, more particularly during the pandemic. In its foregoing direction, the High Court had sought CCTV footage of the appointed counting areas to see if Covid protocols were followed.
The Hon’ble court took the judicial notice of the deaths of 135 people who were Teachers, Shiksha Mitras, and investigators who capitulated to COVID-19 due to the posting on election duty during the recent phase of the elections of the Panchayat elections.
Today, the State Election Commission presented certain photographs of the counting centres and some of the CCTV clips. It further submitted that reports from the majority of the Nodal Officers were still anticipated.
Whereas the HC observed and stated while issuing the notice to the UP State Election Commission that, neither the police nor the election commission took any step to save the lives of people who were on election duty from getting infected by this deadly Coronavirus.
A further hearing regarding will be done on May 11.
