Additional settlement staff from election work: Purandeshwari

Vijayawada: BJP state president Daggubati Purandeswari on Saturday asked the Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to reconsider the proposal to assign election duties to endowments department employees in the coming two months.

In the letter written to the CEO, he told that the months of April, May and June come under Uttarayan Punya Kalam. Many festivals like Ugadi and Shri Ram Navami fall under this period.

Apart from this, schools and colleges will remain closed for summer vacations. A large number of people undertake pilgrimage and visit temples during this period.
As a result, Purandeshwari said, it is important that endowment staff remain in the temples, so that they can cater to the rush of devotees and provide them with smooth darshan.
He explained that endowment employees are assigned specific duties, which cannot be ignored, as it would amount to bypassing the Agama Shastras. Therefore their work should not be disrupted.

The AP BJP chief underlined that since all the endowment employees are from Hindu religion, their deputation for election work would invite criticism that people of a particular religion were being used for election work.
He suggested that since all the examinations were over, the services of teachers could be used for election duties.