Uttar Pradesh Primary Teachers Association has written to  Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath demanding that Rs.1 crore be provided as compensation to the dependents of every teacher and staff worker who died during the recently held local body elections in Uttar Pradesh.

In a letter dated May 16, 2021, the UPTA listed as many as 1,621 of its members who died after contracting Covid or due to other serious ailments while on election duty between April and May. This list, not only points towards administrative apathy, but also vehemently rejects the government data as per which only three teachers died between April 12 to May 16 after being on election duty.

SabrangIndia had previously reported how several teachers and Shiksha Mitras had died after serving at polling stations. The Union had published a list of 706 deaths on April 29. Two days later, the union reported 300 Covid-infected members, and questioned the state government’s rational in not delaying the counting. Now, the new list includes people with heart diseases who died due to tension and heart attack.

“The number that was only 706 deaths in the third phase of the election shot up to 1,600 deaths during the fourth phase. It is worrying that despite such suffering, basic teachers are still being harassed by the local administration,” said General Secretary Sanjay Singh in the letter.

On May 11, the Allahabad High Court directed the government to pay Rs. 1 crore to kin of polling officers who died due to the administration’s and the State Election Commission’s (SEC) negligence towards Covid-protocol. However, the UP government recently said it would only provide Rs. 30 lakh – a compensation that even the judges considered “very less”.

Of the total, 1,621 deaths, 1,181 were men while 440 were women. Geographically, the following regions lost their primary teachers and staff workers: Hardoi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lucknow, Raebareli, Sitapur, Unnao, Azamgarh, Balliya, Mau, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Kushinagar, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Chandoli, Ayodhya, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Amethi, Ambedkarnagar, Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Kanpur, Farukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Agra, Mainpuri, Mathura, Firozabad, Muradabad, Amroha, Bijnor, Rampur, Sambhal, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Bhadohi, Gonda, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun, Banda, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Bareli, Shahjahanpur, Budaun, Pilibhit, Mareth, Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Noida, Bulandshahar, Hapur, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Aligarh, Kasganj, Etah, Hathras, Basti, Siddharthnagar, Santakbir nagar.

The Union demanded that dependents appearing for BTC, B.Ed, D.L. Ed, be given teachers’ posts while the rest are to be appointed as clerks. Moreover, the government should employ the pre-April-1-2005 pension system for the aggrieved families. Families of teachers who were 60 years or younger should get gratuity.

Singh also asked that members in Covid-Control rooms be released from duty. Earlier, teachers were assured work-from-home guidelines to carry out their work. However, majority of districts ignored these rules and called teachers and staff to crowded control rooms, further endangering their lives.

He also demanded that all deceased be declared Covid-warriors, and that the government help Covid-recovered teachers and staff with their medical fees. During court proceedings, the government had assured that High Court that infected teachers will not be forced to work. Yet sick teachers were called on the day of counting. To make matters worse, the union claimed that some of these teachers suffered a salary cut.

It may be mentioned that for all of the SEC’s eagerness to conduct polling, some candidates died of Covid-19 even before the results were declared. However, Adityanath’s attention seems to be turned towards the state’s cowsheds, directing gaushalas to be equipped with medical equipment such as oximeters and thermal scanners.

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The post UP: 1,621 people on polling duty dead, but gov’t recognises only 3! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Allahabad High Court has deemed Rs. 1 Crore compensation to be given to families of polling officers and staff who lost their lives to Covid as a consequence of being on polling duty during the Panchayat elections in the state.

Adv. Tarun Agarwal appearing for State Election Commission agreed to file an affidavit on next date giving names of Nodal Officers who were entrusted with task to ensure that Covid-19 guidelines were duly followed during counting as also on the deaths of polling officers.

The court then considered the issue of compensation decided by the government for the deceased and observed that it was too less. The court was of the considered opinion that compensation should be at least Rs. 1 crore.

The counsels for the petitioners submitted that the amount decided by Government was too meager an amount considering the threat of pandemic was well known to the State Government as well as State Election Commission and yet the teachers, investigators and Shiksha Mitras were forced to take risk. The court observed that, “It is not a case that somebody volunteered to render his/ her services during election but it was all made obligatory to those assigned with election duty to perform their duties during election even while they showed their reluctance”.

The court further held, “To compensate the loss of life of the bread earner of the family and that too because of the deliberate act on the part of the State and State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in the absence of RTPCR support, the compensation must be at least to the tune of Rs.1,00,00,000/-.”

The court asked the State Election Commission and the state government to rethink over the compensation amount and make submissions on the next date, May 17.

State Primary Teachers Association President Dinesh Sharma has claimed that at least 706 teachers died due to Covid-19 after continued duty at the panchayat polls. In fact, on April 29, the Association had even sent a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and State Election Commission to request a postponement of the elections but to no avail.

The complete order may be read here:

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