Malda Training Diary - Administrative Training Institute

Page 59 of 59
Work done
Election duty: strong room in-charge continued & counting.
Information
Today from 7 a.m. I was in charge of the strong room at BT college, sending batches of 12
boxes to each constituency of the 5 in the college premises. This was over by 12.30 p.m.
After lunch I was busy sorting the statutory covers, & then around 3 pm joined the ADM,
helping him to stamp & decide doubtful & rejected cases. The number of rejected votes was
alarming & showed serious lack of voter education. Found quite a few from my own booth
too! Unique case of Presiding Officer also acting as Asstt. Returning Officer! Many Presiding
Officers, we found, had given voters the voting stamp in red ink! Most rejection were ‘No
Marking’ or ‘Blank Area Marking’, ‘Multiple voting’ & v.v. few otherwise. One had an
appeal for H.B.Grants tagged on to it!
Bimal Das won easily in English Bazar after we completed the 6 rounds of counting at 11 am.
Result was declared &, after sealing all the ballot papers & strong room, we left at 1 am 14 th
totally exhausted!
Luckily the office provided us snacks at intervals & finally a light chicken & parotha dinner
too. Complete Congress & CPI landslide. Not a single CPM seat!
In counting process, I saw a lot of K.S.Majumdar’s real character. He was constantly
needling counters to ask DM for a second day’s allowance of Rs. 6 & they were deliberately
slowing counting to reach 12 p.m. but failed in this. Also he constantly loudly criticised M.S.
Bhattacharyya, OC Election for being a miser & not spending money freely for refreshments
for the workers! And of course he was all the time praising himself & his own proficiency!
Most irritating.
The ADM’s patience and ability to sit & work for hours [8 am to 1 am] was amazing really.
He inspired a new liking & respect for him in me. As for me, I was constantly being pulled
between Strong Room and ARO’s table & got irritable at the fag end.
14.3.1972
Work done
Treasury training.
Election duty—sealing statutory packets.
Information
Today I was in the Treasury from 11.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then proceeded to B.T. College
where I helped to seal all statutory packets for Harischandrapur constituency. This carried on
till 5 pm after which I attended a tea party to all officers & drivers & clerks thrown by
Hannan Chowdhury who arrived to see DM before he is transferred.
DM agreed to R.Kar & S.N Majumdar’s request to be allowed to go to Dacca before DM
leaves Malda. We will leave on 17 th & I’ll carry along a convoy of trucks to Rajshahi with
rice & blankets. Thence on to Dacca. We need passports for this as Rajshahi onwards is not
an official trip. Curiously, when, later, M.S. Bhattacharyya made the same request it was
rejected by DM!
Letter from AG arrived saying they had not yet received my LPC from UP AG & hence
could not issue payslip, but that provisional payment could be arranged under F.D. Memo
No. 1782-F of 27/5/1970.
The packing & sealing today was haphazard—each constituency following a different
method: some sealing each packet, others sealing package of 10 packets. Showed need for
uniform instructions to be laid down clearly beforehand.
All officers including DM are apprehensive of the Congress’ brute majority as a threat to
Democracy which is basically Govt. by opposition. At the same time, all are relieved at the
prospect of no elections for another 4 years [Parliamentary Elections then].
Here are Malda’s results:--