Key Points

“ONOE is a system designed to save both manpower and resources. Frequent elections lead to repeated deployment of personnel and materials, disrupting the regular functioning of the education department," said the Maharashtra government in its representation made to the Joint Committee on the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 chaired by Lok Sabha member P.P. Chaudhary.

“While ONOE aims to streamline the electoral process and potentially reduce the frequency of elections, the sheer scale of synchronised national and state election would necessitate the deployment of an even larger number of personnel. If a significant portion of university and college staff is required for these duties, even if less frequent, the impact on academic activities during those specific periods could be more profound and prolonged. Careful planning and consideration are needed to mitigate disruptions to the academic schedule under such a system,” argued the state government.

The government further said that frequent deployment of teaching and non-teaching staff for election duties has a demonstrably adverse impact on regular academic functioning of universities and colleges.

It disrupts teaching, research, examinations, assessment and admission schedules, ultimately affecting the quality of higher education.

The government said the deployment of teaching and non-teaching staff from universities and colleges for frequent election duties for various bodies including municipal council, Assembly and the Parliament undeniably poses significant adverse impacts on the regular academic activities within higher education institutions.

“Maharashtra’s higher education department has a workforce of about 37,199 teaching and 39,252 non-teaching staff across 15 universities and 1,228 government-aided colleges and 28 government colleges under higher education.

"Deployment of this workforce for election duties disturbs academic processes, disrupts the academic calendar and seriously affects the core functions of these institutions. As a substantial number of vacancies exist in the teaching and non-teaching faculty at any given point in time, deployment of the available staff for election duties adversely affects the functioning of these institutions,” it added.

The government has clarified that it has no objection to deployment of teachers especially from schools as polling officers for one or two days during actual polling as part of their civic duty.

“However, our primary concern lies with the prolonged deployment of teachers as Booth Level Officers. This assignment extends over several months. Such duties significantly disrupt teachers' ability to fulfil their core academic responsibilities, especially during crucial periods in the school calendar,” said the government.

As far as deployment of police personnel for frequent elections is concerned, the government said it has an adverse impact on the force's normal law and order duties in the state.

“Frequent elections adversely impact investigations and preventions of crimes, serving of summons and execution of warrants, escort of prisoners for trial, proper traffic management as well as other day-to-day police functions. As policemen are engaged in election-related duties many days before the actual conduct of polls as well as after the election, frequent polls on different occasions severely impact police functioning.

"To reduce such an adverse impact, if various elections are held together (through different phases) it will reduce the burden on police deployment and automatically reduce the impact on day-to-day police functioning,” argued the government.

According to the Maharashtra government, it incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,295.43 crore for conducting Lok Sabha elections. Of the Rs 1,295.43 crore, Rs 315.17 crore was for manpower deployment, Rs 12.10 crore for hiring premises, Rs 67.51 crore was used for hiring vehicles and deployment of voting machines and Rs 900.65 crore on other expenses. The election expenditure was 0.049 per cent of the state’s nominal GDP.

During the 2019 Assembly elections, the Maharashtra government spent Rs 1,523.27 crore. Of this, Rs 317.24 crore was on manpower deployment, Rs 8.70 crore on hiring of premises, Rs 68.17 crore for hiring of vehicles and deployment of voting machines and Rs 1,129.16 crore on other expenses. The election expenditure was 0.057 per cent of the nominal GDP.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the government incurred expenditure worth Rs 2,114.66 crore comprising Rs 332.69 crore on manpower deployment, Rs 10.10 crore on hiring of premises, Rs 149.79 crore on hiring of vehicles and deployment of voting machines and Rs 1,622.08 crore on other expenses. The election expenditure was 0.080 per cent of the nominal GDP.

In the 2024 Assembly elections, the government spent Rs 2,252 crore, of which Rs 348.19 crore was on manpower deployment, Rs 7.20 crore on hiring of premises, Rs 16.79 crore on hiring of vehicles and deployment of voting machines and Rs 1,770.11 crore on other expenses. The election expenditure was 0.085 per cent of the nominal GDP.

(Sanjay Jog can be contacted at sanjay.j@ians.in)

- IANS