Rajasthan

• 12 Oct 2023

For the First Time in the State , Media Workers are Included in the Category of Essential Services .

Why In News?

On October 11, 2023 Chief Electoral Officer of the Election Commission of India Praveen Gupta said that in the Rajasthan Assembly General Election-2023, apart from the service voters, the Election Commission of India has also provided the facility of voting through postal ballot to the employees working in other eight departments. For the first time, media persons in Rajasthan have also been included in this category.

Key Points:

• The Election Commission has issued a notification in this regard. Employees of electricity-water, roadways-metro, dairy, fire fighter, medical education department and medical and health department are also involved in this.
• According to the orders issued by the Election Commission, doctors in the medical sector, para medical staff, ambulance workers, electricians in the energy department, linemen, pump operators in PHED, turners, employees working in milk committees of Rajasthan, driver-conductors in roadways and election officials. Media employees authorized by the Commission will be given the facility of voting through postal ballot from this year.
• For the first time, journalists have been included in the category of service voters. Till now, the facility of service voting was available only to the employees-officers posted on election duty, army or para military personnel.
• All these essential service personnel have been given the facility of postal ballot from now on. The concerned departments will tell how many employees they have who will be on duty on the day of voting and who may be deprived of voting on that day. On the basis of that list, the Returning Officer will issue Form 12-D to those employees and they will be given the facility of voting through ballot paper at the Facilitation Centre.