Bhubaneswar: Ahead of Panchayat polls slated for next month, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday revised the ex-gratia compensation for polling personnel.
According to the official order, a compensation Rs. 30 lakh will be provided to families of polling personnel who die due to any violent act of extremist or anti-social elements in road mines, bomb blasts, armed attacks. In case of death due to other reasons, the compensation amount will be Rs. 15 lakh.
The rate of ex-gratia compensation in other cases are as follows:
Those who die due to COVID-19 will also be compensated with Rs. 30 lakh and a cashless medical treatment facility will be provided to those infected while on poll duty.
It further said that a death certificate specifying the reason for death has to be issued by the Medical Officer and countersigned by the CDMO concerned certifying specifically the cause to be COVID-19.
“A person is to be treated on election duty, as soon as he/she leaves his /her residence /office to report for any election-related duty, including training and until he/she reaches back his / her residence/office after performance of his / her election-related duty. Any mishap that takes place during the said period shall be treated as having occurred on election duty subject to the condition that there should be a casual connection between the occurrence of death/injury and the election duty,” the notification said.
The duty period is to be counted from the date and time of reporting for election duty before the Election Officer and ends with being relieved by the Election Officer from election duty.
The SEC said that the family of the deceased personnel or the personnel disabled/grievously injured on election duty will be eligible to the above grant subject to production of the following documents from the appropriate authorities in support of the claim:
