Volunteers can do any work after quitting: HC

Andhra Pradesh High Court has expressed its inability to stop the resigned village/ward volunteers from taking up activity of their own. The High Court while hearing a petition filed by Bharatha Chaitanya Yuvajana Party president Bode Ramachandra Yadav requesting the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Andhra Pradesh to direct the State government to issue orders not to accept the resignations of the volunteers in this regard.
The counsel on behalf of the Election Commission informed the High Court that 62,000 village and ward volunteers have quit their jobs and another 900 volunteers were removed from service for violating the model code of conduct by working for the ruling party. The commission also told the court that the volunteers have been kept away from the election-related work. The counsel further said “The volunteers are not regular government employees, but are engaged on contract basis. Once they resign, they have no obligation to work for the government, as they cease to be on rolls.”
 He made it clear that the commission cannot restrain the resigned volunteers to do only a specific duty, as they are free to work for any political party or organisation.
Yadav argued that the volunteers were being pressurised to resign from their jobs and work for the ruling YSRCP and hence, the government should not accept their resignations, at least till May 14, when the polling for the elections would be completed. More than two lakh village and ward volunteers were employed by the YSRCP government in 2019 to identify beneficiaries and door delivery of schemes for fifty households assigned to him in the area.