KOLLAM: Approximately 450 government institutions in the district failed to register on the Election Commission's order portal for appointing officers for election duties. Consequently, around five thousand employees avoided election work. According to local authorities, there are only about 3,200 eligible institutions in the district to appoint employees for election duties, of which approximately 2,700 complied with the order by submitting employee details.

The problem arose due to the discrepancy between the deadline for entering information on the order portal in the district, which ended earlier than the date set by the Election Commission. Although the Election Commission had set the deadline till the 30th of last month, it expired on the 24th in the district. Moreover, some office supervisors fell prey to a fraudulent circular with incorrect dates regarding the order portal. Notably, central government institutions and nationalized banks largely omitted employee information from the order portal. Additionally, there were no efforts made to include employee details for unregistered institutions, sparking strong protests among government employees.

The Chief Electoral Office introduced the order portal this time to appoint officers for election duties, aiming to prevent certain employees from evading election responsibilities through organizational influence or monetary means. However, it is alleged that the portal was not effectively utilized. In response, the collector began issuing show cause notices to nodal officers of institutions who failed to submit employee details on time. Subsequently, around 2000 employees sought dismissal after the order portal selected them for training through the initial randomization process. Their applications cited reasons such as illness, relatives' weddings, urgent travel, etc.