Malda Training Diary - Administrative Training Institute

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Touring with army is irritating because of their 20-30 Km. speed. Hence it took so long to
cover areas & we were unable to cover Southern Harishchandrapur. I arranged with BDOs to
send guides by 8 am on 10 th to army at Chanchol for complete touring when S.N.Majumdar
replaces me.
9.3.1972
Today we toured Ratua to Bhaluka Bazar from where the Cong® insisted we tour the CPM
Jaggannathpur (all very sullen Muslims I found!) and then Pukhuria whence I left for Malda
around 2 p.m. and reached at 3 p.m.
Attended Treasury at 4.30 p.m.
Drew Rs. 15/- contingency for my polling party (No. 584, station 56 at Town H.S. in English
Bazar Constituency). My party consists of:-
Aparna Das Gupta, Lady Gram Sevika, English Bazar block
Sudhir Ch. Acharjee, clerk, Dist. Cooperative Office
Makhan Ch. Satiar, peon.
according to my appointment letter of 14/2/72 (!!!), Memo No. 179-1184.
Makhan has purchased bamboo sticks which, tied to a table top & with gunny bags, will
make the voting compartment. He took money to get a “surahi” & 2 glasses for the booth. He
suggested we leave the ballot boxes in the booth in custody of the accompanying police.
10.3.1972
Work done
Presiding Officer duty
Information
Reported at distribution centre at 8 am. Slight mix-up of centres for each constituency owing
to lack of co-ordination last night. Benches for polling staff, marked party-wise had not been
lined up before the correct counters. This was rectified. Then we had coolies bring the ballot
paper trunks & at 9 am. I began distribution with R.Kar & 2 clerks & 2 peons, to Kaliachak.
This has the largest number of booths [99], yet working at top speed we finished much before
other counters at 11.45 am.
Then I collected my materials & picked proper boxes personally as I found that my staff were
not sure as to which were defective, not having properly attended to the training. I confirmed
my selection by checking with BDO English Bazar about how to see if boxes were defective
[once closed, the slit cannot be opened without opening the box itself].
I left at 12.30 with the 4 Home Guards & 2 Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Force (MPSAF)
[both from Kutubsahar & were delighted to be with me] & selected a room as our booth. The
adjoining party for the men’s booth had not turned up. Their Pres. Officer came later, quite at
a loss as to how to reach with materials. So I sent him back with a note to T.P.Ghosh
requesting to allot transport to this party. I found this chap, though quite experienced in
elections, extremely uncertain about what to do. He is from the Gram Sevak Trg. Centre &
has never heard of T.P.Ghosh etc!
Makhan rigged up a lovely voting compartment, tying bamboo sticks to the legs of a table &
sewing 2 gunny bags all around. I added a 3 rd one as a roof & ensured no movement inside is
visible from outside. Using the 2 doors, I arranged the booth so as to have clear entrance &
exits. I also got proper chairs for the P.O.s as only desks would be horrible without backrests.
Finally, from local sweet shop I arranged for our dry-lunch tomorrow (we won’t have time
for rice & curry) consisting of “loochis” & fried potatoes & brinjals.
We have 942 voters in our list—all women. Miss Das Gupta (in her 40s) was P.O. here in
1971 too & expects great delay as many women will like to sign!
We checked all our materials & the ballot paper serials & stamped them all with the P.S.
mark 42/56. Left at 4 pm after locking & arranging for night patrolling.