In a major development, the Andhra Pradesh Government Employees Federation has hit out at State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar for “not caring about the lives of employees”.
The Chairman of the Federation, Venkatram Reddy, went onto question the SEC’s hypocrisy, saying, “The SEC addressed a press conference which was attended by not more than 10-15 people. Despite there being a distance of at least 15 ft between the press personnel and him, he chose to be surrounded by a glass shield to protect himself. On the other hand, without paying heed to what the government is saying, he has decided to call for the local body polls, thereby putting the lives of thousands of employees in danger. Aren’t our lives valuable?”
Questioning the timing of the notification, Reddy said, “If the SEC was so committed to empowering the local bodies, why didn’t he call for the local body polls as soon as the tenure expired in 2018? Even now, all we are asking is for him to delay the polls by just 60 days so that all the employees are vaccinated before they are asked to interact with thousands of citizens as part of election duties. We aren’t against the election being held, we aren’t for any political party, we just want to be safe.”
Responding to the SEC referring to elections being held in other states, the chief of the federation said, “Yes, elections were held in other states but those were done at a time when none had a clue about when the vaccine would be out. Now, the vaccines are out and the process to vaccinate employees has already started. Therefore, we are requesting the SEC to delay the polls by just 2 months but in vain. Our pleas haven’t been heard and the SEC is acting at the behest of forces behind him.”
