Wadhvan ARO cancels leave to join poll duty

RAJKOT: His mother died just 8 days before the election. But this did not deter a grieving Vijay Patni to discharge his election duties.

Patni, deputy collector of Surendranagar district used to be assigned the obligation of assistant returning officer (ARO) of Wadhvan. He used to be accountable for 279 booths within the taluka.

On April 15, his mother died due to age-related illness in Ahmedabad. Patni used to be even granted 15 days leave via district collector to finish the post-death rituals. However, the officers have been pleasantly surprised when Patni returned to enroll in the obligation on April 20. His role contains issuing responsibility orders to folks, dispatching of EVMs to the booths, educate and organize the body of workers of round 2,000 folks to see that election is completed peacefully and EVMs are sent again underneath the safety at secure place after of entirety of poll.

Patni informed TOI, “I used to be conscious that it might be extremely tricky for someone else to control this role impulsively. So I joined the obligation. For the record, Amrut Patel is the ARO, however I joined the obligation to help him and spot that the election is completely smoothly.”

“We are still mourning my mother’s death. But election is a festival of democracy and it’s my responsibility against the nation,” Patni added. Appreciating Patni’s gesture, Surendranagar district collector and election officer Ok Rajesh mentioned, “In spite of being on leave due to a tragedy within the circle of relatives, he came to discharge his duties to helping the brand new ARO. We may whole the poll smoothly because of dedicated officers like Patni.”