PANAJI: Brushing aside the news reports that the government employees are being pressurised to cast their vote in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates contesting the state assembly polls, the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, on Thursday, said that the long period between the state assembly polls and counting of votes is being used by some people with vested interests to spread such rumours.
“However, Goa has very high literacy rate and its people are wise enough to see the fallacy in such news,” Parsekar added. It may be recalled that over 17,000 postal ballots have been issued to government employees and police personnel across the state, who were engaged in election duty on February 4.
These votes could play an important role in deciding the fate of the contestants in many constituencies as the number of postal ballots is sufficiently large. Speaking further, the Chief Minister said that the government employees have recently got raise in their salaries by way of implementation of the recommendations of the 7th pay Commission. “I don’t think that anyone of them would be selling his or her vote for a paltry sum of Rs 2,000 as mentioned in some newspaper reports,” he observed.
All government employees posted at the 1,642 polling stations in the state, including the local police force and support staff, like drivers, who worked to ensure that the elections were carried out smoothly, have permission until 8 am on March 11, to send in their postal ballots to the returning officer.
Every voter then has to sign a declaration Form 13A in the presence of a stipendiary magistrate and get it attested by the magistrate.
Meanwhile the State Chief Electoral Office has stated that it has instructed the representatives of all the political parties to bring such instances, if any to the notice of the state Chief Electoral Officer.
“It was emphasised that giving and taking of bribe is punishable and strict action would be initiated under the law against anyone offering bribe or pressurising, or anyone accepting or demanding bribe,” stated the state Chief Electoral Officer, Kunal.
