India, April 26 -- The District Election Office (DEO) has started issuing show cause notices to a mammoth 7,000 government employees found negligent in the discharge of their election duties.

The indicted employees have been directed to give explanation for their absence from the training. The DEO has found government staffers ranging from clerks to officials and other ranks avoiding election duties, and giving false excuses for not attending the mandatory election training exercise.

District collector and election officer Dr Suhas Diwase said that manpower remains a major challenge for conducting the elections, and retaining trained manpower on the polling day is of crucial importance. "At each polling station, there are a minimum of f...