Odisha Govt employees to get 3-day special casual leave for voting during Panchayat election

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today allowed 3-day casual leave (CL) to every government employee to vote during the upcoming Panchayat election in the State.

Panchayati Raj Secretary Ashok Meena has written to all Secretaries, heads of departments and the concerned officials on this Special CL in addition to normal casual leave.

“I am directed to say that the elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions will be held on different dates (16^th, 18^th, 20^th, 22^nd, and 24^th February 2022) in a phased manner. All Govt. employees and employees of Govt Undertakings/ Boards/ Corporations/ Apex Bodies etc., who have registered themselves as voters in Grama Panchayats may exercise their franchise for the ensuing PRI elections. Such employees, who desire to exercise their franchise at a place away from their headquarters on the date of the poll, maybe allowed Special Casual Leave for a maximum period of 3 (three) days i.e, one day preceding the poll, one day after the poll and the day on the date of poll. The leave to be granted may be treated as Special Casual Leave in addition to normal casual leave admissible to them during the calendar year 2022. The written application by the employees will be sufficient to show their enrolment in a particular GP,” said the letter of Meena.

“The head of the offices granting the Special Casual Leave will determine the number of days of Special Casual Leave (not exceeding 3 days) to be sanctioned. Ordinarily, the employees should not be restrained from exercising their franchise and should be given all possible facilities. The provision of sparing of staff without any detriment to the official work should be liberally interpreted,” it added.

The letter further said, “Besides, all collectors are hereby authorized to declare the day of the poll as notified for Blocks/ GPs (as per phase-wise schedule) as a holiday. The day of the Poll will also be declared as a holiday for the Judicial Courts located within the Block areas as per letter no. 1202 dated 19.01.2022 of the State Election Commission.”