Utter chaos prevailed at the Centenary Hall of Maharaja’s College this morning where a training programme had been organised by the district administration for Presiding Officers I and II of polling booths in Chamaraja Assembly constituency in city as Polling Officers I and II of all the booths in the constituency, who were not required to attend the training, also thronged the venue in large numbers.

Officials entrusted with the task of conducting the programme had a tough time controlling more than 2,000 officials comprising lecturers and professors of government and private colleges who trooped into the hall to sign the attendance register, which led to further confusion, bringing the entire programme to a standstill for nearly two hours.

The mad rush was reportedly created as Polling Officers I and II, who were not a part of the training programme, also converged at this centre. They were only expected to sign Form 12 pertaining to Postal ballots and were not supposed to attend the training programme.

It is reported that the training, that was scheduled to be held at 9 am, was postponed to 3 pm as officials of the Election Commission headed by Chamaraja constituency Returning Officer P.G. Ramesh and Assistant Returning Officer and MUDA special Tahsildar Nandini had a tough time to bring the situation to normalcy by convincing the officials present about the programme.

Meanwhile, many Polling Officers, who had reached the hall, alleged that they had been unnecessarily called for the training in which they had no role whatsoever to play.

Though the apathy of the organisers of the programme was understandable, many said that the same could have been organised in a more spacious venue as the organisers were aware that more than a 1000 officials would attend the training for which the Centenary Hall was not spacious enough.

Courtesy : Star Of Mysore