Fight poll, avoid duty

Behrampore, June 10: Around 100 high school teachers in Murshidabad have filed nominations for the panchayat elections as Independents as they don’t want to be put on poll duty because they apprehend violence. Abdul Matin Biswas, an assistant teacher of Kushabaria High School in Domkol, said he filed his nomination as an Independent because he was “scared” of poll duty this time. “I am scared to go on poll duty this time because every day we get to hear incidents of violence. In 2008, 16 people had died in Murshidabad during the polls. Eight of them had died in Domkol. This time there has been lot of tension in the district. So if by filing a nomination as an Independent I can avoid poll duty, my family will stay in peace,” Biswas said. Another teacher, Nibir Kumar Som of Sagardighi High School, said he would not be able to handle the pressure of poll duty. “I will not be able to handle the pressure of working as a polling hand. But I cannot be excused from polling duty because of this. So I took the easy way out by filing a nomination in my local gram panchayat,” Som said. Debashish Chakraborty, an assistant teacher of Lalnagar High School, said his family members had been pressuring him not to go for poll duty ever since the dates for the elections were announced. “This year, the panchayat polls are being held in a different political atmosphere in which violence has become frequent. My wife was very scared about my going on poll duty. So I thought of becoming a candidate,” Chakraborty said. The teacher added that he stayed in a rented accommodation in Behrampore and travelled 70km to the Shikarpur gram panchayat to file his nomination from there. The sub-divisional officer of Domkol, Prasanta Adhikari, said if a teacher files a nomination for the election, he can no longer be deployed for poll-related work. Adhikari said a schoolteacher can become a candidate if he is above 18 years. “If a candidate wins and becomes just a member of a gram panchayat, panchayat samiti or zilla parishad, he need not resign from his job. But if he/she becomes a functionary such as a pradhan, sabhapati or sabhadhipati and karmadakshya he/she will have to resign,” the SDO added. The convenor of Trinamul-dominated West Bengal Secondary Teachers’ Association, Sheikh Furkan, appealed to the teachers not to file nominations to avoid poll duty and co-operate with state election commission. But the district secretary of the Left-backed All Bengal Teachers’ Association, Dulal Dutta, said he supported the teachers’ move.