At a time when teachers are extremely burdened with state board assessment work and online classes, some of them were shocked to receive notices for not being able to report for election duty. The Election Commission has roped in teachers as block-level officers to prepare voters’ lists for the civic elections, but they feel that they won’t be able to manage it along with assessment work. Some of them have even questioned why the civic staff were not being deployed for the work.

Officials on election duty arrange electronic voting machines as they wait to board a bus ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. File pic