My Election Duties as Zonal Magistrate in Urban Area Author: Dr. K.S.Kang

My Election Duty as a Zonal Magistrate/Sector Officer in Urban Area

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

Our service cadre always complained that Election Commission did not pay heed to hierarchy of pay scales while allotting duties in the elections and the people with much lower pay scales were made Area Magistrates and Zonal Magistrates while college teachers were just made Presiding Officers of polling parties. After much lobbying and representations ultimately Election Commission decided to make college teachers also as Zonal Magistrates. This initiative was first of all taken by District Collector Sawai Madhopur Mr. G.S. Sandhu whose wife was Assistant Professor in Agriculture Faculty at that time in Government College Sawai Madhopur. Others also followed and I was made Zonal Magistrate/Sector Officer of Nimbahera Town of Chittorgarh district. The Nimbahera Town was divided into two zones and after initial pre poll training we were allotted Jeeps/SUV’s with a driver so that we can move in our areas to perform our duties freely and efficiently. Basically Zonal magistrate/Sector Officer was eyes and ears and even sometimes nose also of district administration as District Administration or District Election Officer could not be at every place and at every time simultaneously so it depended on the facts and information provided by Zonal Magistrates/Sector Officers in the given formats and proformas from time to time during their visit to the respective areas. Besides helping the district administration in the swift conduct of polls a Zonal Magistrate/Sector Officer had also to ensure the safety of polling parties and their comfortable stay at the poling station by ensuring the availability of Assured Minimum Facilities like availability of drinking water, electricity and clean and hygienic wash rooms. In addition to it a Zonal Magistrate had also to maintain the sanctity of polls by maintaining the identity of voters a secret by ensuring that the concerned political parties and candidates followed Model Code of Conduct framed by Election Commission of India. In one Zone/Sector normally eight to ten polling stations were placed.

After pre poll training we set out in our vehicles for our allotted areas. My area began from Kailas Vidya Mandir and Government College building in the North to the building of a government school at Chotti-Sadri road in the south. I was fortunate that I was given urban sector as there would be no problem of food or staying at the headquarters. The headquarter given to me was Dak Bungalow of Public Works Department where the Election observer from Central Government, who were senior IAS officer was also staying in the room adjoining to my room. As the caretaker of Dak Bungalow also turned out to be a student of my college so he used to provide tea to me from time to time when ever he used to prepare tea for the Observer. In every tour of the area we had to fill certain formats and proformas and provide certain facts and data relating to polling booth, vulnerability prone sections of society, and observance of model code of conduct by the concerned candidates and political parties. The duties of a Zonal Magistrate were divided broadly into three – Pre poll duties, During poll duties and post poll duties. Besides providing information and data regarding polling booths a zonal magistrate had to ensure peaceful polls in his area and if there is any violation of model code of conduct he has to take action or report it to higher authorities. Pre poll duties also included the returning to district headquarter on a particular date to collect polling parties allotted to your area and to escort them safely to their polling station. So the vehicle of a Zonal magistrate follows the vehicle of the last polling party of his area. He has to report the arrival of each polling party of his area and the poll preparedness of each polling party to District Election Office. I found that in my area there were some buildings in which there were two polling booths. The area under me had polling booths in Kailash Vidya mandir, a private school owned by JK Cement Works, building of Government College, Muincipality building, Government primary School near Dak Bungalow and the Government School building on Chotti Sadri Road. Thus in total I had ten polling booths under me. During the polls a Zonal Magistrate has to ensure free and fair poll in his area besides giving percentage of votes polled in his area booth wise after every couple of hours. To reach every booth in two hours was a near impossibility Two things had improved communication one was mobile phones so information can be gathered on phones from the polling parties after every two hours and the coming of EVM’s (Electronic Voting Machines) had facilitated the collection of data. After the polls it is duty of a Zonal Magistrate that every polling party reaches the district headquarters safely and properly deposits the EVM’s and other polling material. A Zonal Magistrate is also expected to fill certain information and formats before he gets relieving certificate from District Election Officer or Returning Officer in case of Legislative Assembly polls.           

            Fortunately my next duty as Zonal Magistrate also came in the area of Nimbahera and same number of polling booths were allotted to me. Mostly the vehicles given to the Zonal Magistrates were either Bolero or Jeeps of Mahindra Motors but the vehicle given to me was Trax Cruise of Tata Motors. The distance between district headquarters and Nimbahera was 30 kms but as the road was under construction so it nearly took me 45 minutes to reach my area. In these polls vulnerability mapping was stressed as Election Commission felt that certain sections of society are denied right to vote with the help of money or muscle power and they are threatened and even bribed for not voting or for voting to any particular candidate or party. So Election Commission also recommended confidence building measures in these sections of society before and during the polls and it was duty of concerned police officers to ensure that the members of vulnerable sections of society go to vote at their respective polling booths. Everything went on normal in these polls except an incident that occurred at the polling booth of Kailash Vidya Mandir. Here the ballot issuing button of EVM was broken as a result of which Presiding Officer was unable to issue the ballots so the polling stopped and a crowd gathered at the booth threatening to cause disturbance at the booth. I was informed by the Presiding officer of the booth and I informed at once to SDO and asked driver of my vehicle to reach the polling station at once. When I reached this booth Tehsildar had already reached the polling booth along with the mechanic who removed the piece of broken button of EVM and showed Presiding Officer the method to issue ballot and at the end of the polls place the broken button on the top of the machine before sealing it. This thing worked and the polling was resumed. As I came out of the polling booth as I climbed my vehicle I announced the resumption of polling amidst the shouts of jubilation from the crowd that included some media people too. Though the polling had stopped only for 30 minutes but the breath of the whole administration had become still during that period. After the polls all the parties deposited their EVM’s and other poll related material and after depositing my documents I got free and came back to my home in the midnight after procuring the duty certificate that I had to give to my college clerk next day.