More than 2,000 Ahmedabad municipal school teachers assigned election-related duties on October 18 have asked the district administration to change the date because it falls on the Atham festival. The Ahmedabad Municipal Teachers’ Association has written to the collector and the district election officer, seeking consideration of the teachers’ personal and family commitments.
The duties have been assigned as part of a special summary revision campaign for electoral rolls. Teachers from the Ahmedabad Municipal School Board have been directed to remain present at polling stations on specified dates and carry out responsibilities including those of booth-level officers, according to the report published by Divya Bhaskar – Ahmedabad.
The association’s representation focuses specifically on the scheduled work on October 18. It said Atham has social and religious importance for teachers and their families and that election-related duties on the festival date would prevent them from participating in the observance as planned.
The association has therefore urged the collector and the district election officer to revise the schedule and take the teachers’ sentiments into account. The representation seeks a suitable alternative date for the assigned election work, but the report does not state whether the administration has accepted the request or issued a revised order.
The dispute highlights the administrative coordination required when public employees are assigned election responsibilities alongside their regular duties. Teachers are frequently deployed for electoral work, including voter-list revision and booth-level responsibilities, placing them within the election administration framework even though their primary roles are in municipal schools.
For the Ahmedabad administration, any change would have to be communicated to the affected teachers and incorporated into the voter-list revision schedule. The report does not provide details of the number of polling locations involved, the duration of the October 18 duty, or whether replacement personnel have been identified.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Teachers’ Association has asked the district authorities to act before the scheduled date so that more than 2,000 teachers and their families can observe the festival while the electoral-roll revision campaign continues. The next step rests with the collector and the district election officer, who will decide whether the assigned date is changed.
