The Uttarakhand State Election Commission (SEC) was forced to get ballot papers printed from private firms as the Government Printing Press Roorkee could not fulfill its demand due to paucity of technical staff.
The state Government Printing Press officials refused to print ballot papers for the commission as it has only 11 technical staff against the sanctioned 300 posts.
Advertisement
The poor management of the government printing press has forced the State Election Commission to outsource ballot papers from private firms for the upcoming municipal elections. Although the commission has its demand of ballot papers fulfilled from outside, it has led to a huge financial burden on it.
Officials in the commission informed that they had no option but to outsource ballot paper printing after the state government printing press based in Roorkee refused to meet their demand. According to the commission officials they were surprised to note the inability of the press authorities to print ballot papers for municipal polls for the want of technical employees.
Additional Director of the Government Printing Press Roorkee Pramod Kumar Singh stated that they have only 11 technical staff as against needed and sanctioned 300. According to Singh it was difficult to meet lakhs of ballot papers’ demand from the commission as the printing press was hard pressed for sufficient hands.
What’s more, the state Government’s Printing Press refused to print ballot papers for panchayat elections as well. The panchayat polls in Uttarakhand are likely to follow Municipal polls. This has forced the State Election Commission to once again look towards private printers to meet its demand of ballot papers for panchayat polls.
Meanwhile, commission officials have also confided that the government printing press’ failure has come as a good business opportunity for select private printers in the state as the cost of ballot papers is quite substantial.
