Use building but clean it up after polling, school tells EC

AHMEDABAD: A school in the Saraspur area of the city has written to the state chief electoral officer stating that it is willing to hand over its school building for polling as long as it gets the building back in the original condition. The school has written that it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that inscriptions made for the electoral exercise are removed after voting ends.
Saraswati Vidya Mandal, which has been running the Saraswati Vidyalaya in Sarasapur for the past 68 years, has alleged in the letter that it had to go through a very unpleasant experience when it handed over its school premises for polling during the 2017 Gujarat assembly election.When officials on election duty were asked to ensure that the inscriptions and labels are removed after polling, the officials approached the police with a complaint that the school was obstructing the smooth conduct of the election.
Jyotindra Dave, the trustee of the school, said: “Just a couple of years ago, to commemorate the completion of 75 years of the trust, we got the whole school painted.” Officials on election duty defaced the walls of the whole building in the last assembly elections, Dave said. “When we sent a written complaint, nobody cared to even answer,” Dave said.
Dave said that the inscriptions and writings are still there on the walls of both schools of the trust, at Asarwa and Saraspur.
The letter states that while it is true that the election commission has been given overriding powers to conduct free and fair elections, officials on duty ought to be instructed to use their powers wisely. “We are a responsible educational institution and wish to bring to your notice that the law has not given the EC the right to deface walls or possessions of citizens without their consent,” the letter states. “If it is necessary, then we humbly believe that it is the duty of the EC to clean up the walls after polling.”