Presiding Officer’s Diary; Booth Number: 122, Talasara Constituency

14^th April 2009, just 2 days after my 24^th birthday (which was as usual a low key affair and as usual most of my friends forgot the exact date and failed to wish me, don’t be sorry, I am used to it) I was standing amid a unbelievably huge crowd in front of the collector office, sundergarh. Don’t think that I was protesting against the price rise or participating in a dharana. I was deputed as a presiding officer for the 1^st phase of assembly and constitutional election in Orissa. The deputation came as a shock for me as for my family members also. I was employed with a private engineering college as a lecturer and I was deputed for election duty. We went through the training session of electronic voting machine (BHEL made) which came from Bihar and the rules and regulations of Indian elections. The micro controller based EVM are simple to operate once you have the basics clear. We were given a booklet where all the procedures were mentioned as how to perform mock poll, how to issue chits to the people still in queue after the end of voting hour, how to manage a crisis like naxalite attack, EVM malfunction, identity crisis of a voter etc. They took our pictures to provide us identity card but till date I am waiting for my presiding officer ID card.

The people standing in front of the collector office were deputed for election duty like me. There were 2 constituency named Sundergarh and Talasara. It was utter chaos and confusion among the people and for debutant like me it was the worst nightmare. I made my way through the crowd and asked for help from the fellow person as there was no help desk present. They asked me to locate the booth number. My appointment letter showed that my appointment was in Talasara constituency. I struggled to find the chart of Talasara constituency and at last after asking several people I managed to find the booth number allotted to me. Booth number: 122, Didgajharan primary School, Talasara constituency. It was a success but a very small one. I have to find 5 polling officer allotted to that polling booth, collect all the materials, find the allotted policeman, get a vehicle and move to the polling booth by evening so that we can reach there at night. I wrote down my mobile number and mentioned that I am the presiding officer and any polling officer can contact me. After few minutes the 2^nd polling officer Fanuel Lakra contacted me and I reached to him. Wearing a sky blue shirt the person looked smart. The merciless sun was playing havoc and I was sweating like anything. I went to the municipality water tanker and drank some water. There was a mad rush at the reception and every one was waiting to put his attendance signature as soon as possible. I was getting irritated because of the atmosphere and the nature of job in hand. I went outside to have lunch and started walking down the street in search of a hotel. But all the hotels were jam packed with the people who were in election duty. After quite a search I found a hotel and had my lunch and returned back to the collector office. Luckily I found my 1^st and 3^rd polling officer standing under the tree near the reception counter. I signed the attendance and we decided to collect the polling materials. We collected the polling materials. A huge trunk, a lantern, 2 EVM and the wages of all the persons of our booth was handed over to me. I asked myself, what is the use of lantern? But I was going to be proven wrong and after a very long time realized the importance of a lantern. In the mean time the other 2 person also joined us. We checked all the materials in the trunk; the 1^st polling officer who had previous experience was very helpful in this regard. There was a white plastic can and I purchased Rs. 10 worth of kerosene from the kerosene center. After some time everything was in proper order and we were ready to go. I was somewhat relieved. Soon we had another trouble. The police patrolling team assigned to us had not yet reported to duty. It was nearly 4 o’clock and they hadn’t yet reported to duty, whereas I am here from 10 o’clock. The wait grew longer and longer but no solution was in sight. For the election in sundergarh home guards of far away places balasore were deputed. So we moved towards the transport. A truck was assigned for booth number 120, 121 and 122. We had a difficult time to find the truck. Fortunately one of my college colleagues was presiding officer of booth 121 and he took the charge of transportation and it took a couple of hours to get the clearance but still no police party was in sight. We announced in the public address system and started moving. At the final moment the police personal joined us. I saw him, he only had a bag, no stick. I looked puzzled. It was a truck used to transport coal and people of 3 booths cramped in to it. There were 21 people, 6 EVM, 3 trunks and the belongings of 21 polling personal. So there was not enough space. Then there were a couple of task still unfinished. The truck needed diesel and we needed dinner. We went to the designated petrol pump and waited in a queue for nearly an hour to fill the diesel. It was around 9 o’clock in the night and we moved on. All the people were hungry and they needed dinner, after some time we stopped at a road side hotel to have some dinner but the hotel had exhausted its resources and made a sorry effort to feed us. That only delayed our progress and when we again started to move it was nearly 10:30 PM. The road condition was bad and the driver was new to the area, and the moon lit night was the only source of light available. The section officer was waiting for us and when we reached a spot he escorted us to our respective booths. There was no road for a truck and we had the worst bumpy ride I have ever had. Exactly at 12 o’clock in the night we reached our booth. A man came to us with a lantern and then I realized the significance of a lantern in the rural areas. He was one of the teachers of the school and after we arrived he left handing the charge to me.

I over viewed the situation. A 24 year old boy assigned to conduct the polling in a rural area of Talasara constituency of Lefripara block of Sundergarh district of Orissa. The team consists of 5 more people whom I am meeting for the first time in my life and all of them are elder than me by at least 10 to 15 years and we are assigned a village where the total number of voters are 297, there is no running water except the tube well, no sanitation and no electricity. I looked around and examined the school. There is a board on the entrance and it is written “Didgajharan Primary School, Estd: 15^th August 1947”. But the school never seemed that old. The school had all total 2 pucca concrete structures, made by the Sarva Sikhya Yogana. The official mascot of sarva sikhya yogana (a boy and a girl in both end of a pencil) was visible. There was an old hatched room which I thought could get demolished at any given moment. In the boundary of the school there was a room for angawan wadi Kendra and another room for which is used to prepare mid day meal and angawan wadi meal schemes. The boundary of the school was nothing but the arranged structure of bricks. After reaching the school I called my father that I am fine and my mobile’s battery is very low, so it would be my last call. We prepared to sleep but the rooms were very hot, so we choose to sleep in the verandah. Me and the first presiding officer spread the bed sheet in the verandah and slept there. After around an hour somebody woke me up, I couldn’t remember who it was, but I was asked to sign a document of reporting to the polling booth and I signed it.

15^th April 2009

Early in the morning our only neighbor came to pay a visit. He prepares food for the angwanwadi Kendra and offered to prepare food for us. I paid him Rs. 200/- for the purpose and asked him to arrange for the lunch. After getting ready I went to see the room where the voting will be conducted. There were 5 chairs, a bench and 3 tables. We arranged everything in order but we were sort of a table for the balloting unit of assembly election. This time also our neighbor came to our rescue and provided a table from his home. There was a lot of paper work, which took us about 2 to 3 hours. After finishing every necessary paper work we went to take bath in the nearby pond. And before leaving we made sure that the police home guard is attending to the EVM. The micro controller based machine had now become more important than anybody’s life. After taking bath we had lunch and slept in the thatched house. In the afternoon the section officer paid a visit and noted down the serial number of the EVM. The police patrolling jeep came for a stroll. As the night descended there was darkness all over the place except the light of the lantern.

16^th April 2009 (D Day)

I woke up at 4 AM and got ready for the job. The mock poll starts at 6 o’clock in presence of the polling agent and the polling officer. But at 6 o’clock no polling agent turned up so we performed the mock poll without the presence of any polling agent and sealed the lok sabha EVM. The section officer and one of his assistant were also present there. After they left and as we were preparing to perform mock poll for assembly EVM some polling agents turned up. We performed mock poll in presence of them and sealed the EVM. All of us were ready for the polling process to begin. At 7 o’clock I as a presiding officer officially started the polling in booth number 122 of Talasara constituency. Soon there were a lot of people and I couldn’t imagine where the people came from. The police personal was facing it difficult to manage the crowd and I asked him to relax and somewhat streamlined the process. After some time 2 persons came in motor bike and started arguing with the police personal. They were demanding to put up the name of the candidate to be pasted in front of the polling booth and I gave the list to the police personal who quickly obeyed my order. They again complained that other party workers are influencing their voters and the line is not proper, I managed to pacify them and they left. Later the police personal said that they were the BJP workers and supporters of Juel Oram, one time M.P, a big name in Sundergarh politics. At 9 o’clock after 2 hours of voting we calculated that total of 109 voters gave their vote and the machine is working according to the expectations. The polling agents were also happy with the ongoing events. As the hours passed it was getting hot. There was no fan in the room and the crowd diminished. In the next 7 hours only 110 votes were registered. Seating under the asbestos roof in a scorching April sun was really boring and irritating. Around 2 o’clock a police patrolling jeep made its customary round and I signed their log book. At 3o’clock I asked the polling agents to cast their votes. At 4 o’clock we stopped the voting process and started sealing up things and at that time the section officer reappeared and asked about the male to female voter ratio and other statistical data required for analysis. He signed the visiting seat and inquired if the police party made a visit or not. We sealed all envelops and got ready to move out. I relieved the police personal from his duty, paid the outstanding dues to the polling personal and paid to our neighbor who worked for us for one and half day.

Now all of us were eager to go home for a much needed rest. But at that moment news came that in Banei Maoist attacked a polling booth and ransacked it and man handled polling staffs. There was a long silence and some of the people in my group panicked and looked towards me, but I never imagined this kind of situation. I was helpless. How can I encourage my group, there are people who are double the age of mine. We silently waited for a couple of hours for the transport truck to arrive. When it came we again faced a real problem. The driver is drunk to its throat and can’t even control the steering and obviously he doesn’t know the route back. This event eventually panicked all my group members and I could see that panic in their respective eyes. They looked towards me and urged me to ask the driver to drive properly. There was just one polling party to be picked up, but the drunkard driver lost his path and wondered in to the wilderness. Nobody knows the route of the unknown terrain. We asked few people and they guided to the last polling booth. When we reached there a quarrel broke out between the members of booth number 120 and 121. Members of booth number 120 charged that the act of delay is intentional and it took some time when the angry people came up the truck and sat but their anger was still visible. When we reached the main road a police party escorted us. The presiding officer of booth of 120 informed the police seeing the delay and the police were alert. When we reached Sundergarh collector office it took another 2-3 hours to deposit all the materials and collect the relieve order. When I received the relieve order around 1 o’clock in night I felt relaxed and looked at my condition. My hands were black due to the coal truck, I was sweating like anything, was on the verge of dehydration. I looked like the lone survivor of a bloody battle. I shouldered my bag and went towards the bus stand to have some food but the solid food was indigestible. I had a cold drink and left the paneer that I ordered untouched. Every one was eager to go to their respective places as soon as possible and luckily I got a seat in the bus and fell fast asleep when the driver ignited the engine. I was woken up by the conductor some time later and he asked me to pay for the ticket. I handed him a Rs. 50 note and again fell asleep to wake up only in Rourkela and called my father at 4 AM in the morning to pick me up and he obliged.