The Andhra Pradesh state high court has wondered how the court can stop village or ward volunteers from taking up a different activity once they resigned from their jobs.
The high court was hearing a petition filed by Bharatha Chaitanya Yuvajana Party president Bode Ramachandra Yadav on April 22 equesting the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Andhra Pradesh to direct the state government to issue orders not to accept the resignations of village and ward volunteers in this regard.
The Election Commission counsel informed the high court that as many as 62,000 village and ward volunteers have quit their jobs and another 900 volunteers were removed from service for violating the model code of conduct by working for the ruling party.
The commission also told the court that the volunteers have been kept away from the election-related work.
“The volunteers are not regular government employees, but are engaged on contract basis. Once they resign, they have bo obligation to work for the government, as they ceased to be on rolls,” the commission lawyer said.
He made it clear that the commission cannot restrain the resigned volunteers to do only a specific duty, as they are free to work for any political party or organisation.
Yadav argued that the volunteers were being pressurised to resign from their jobs and work for the ruling YSRCP and hence, the government should not accept their resignations, at least till May 14, when the polling for the elections would be completed.
More than two lakh village and ward volunteers were employed by the YSRCP government in 2019 for identifying beneficiaries and door delivery of schemes for fifty households assigned to him in the area.
