Jamshedpur, Feb. 15: Officials responsible for conducting free and fair election in six Assembly constituencies of East Singhbhum district could not vote today.

They didn?t lack identity cards or found their names missing from the electoral list. Over 10,000 government officials, policeman and paramilitary forces who missed the chance to cast their vote blamed the government for it.

Senior government officials revealed that the Representation of People Act has provisions which ensure that polling personnel can use their franchise rights even if they are engaged in poll duty. But due to the mismanagement by local administration, they could not do so.

R.C. Hembram, an employee in state irrigation department, who could not cast his vote due to poll duty, pointed out that the administration is aware of the rules and knows that if the deployment is decided at the last moment, the facility cannot be availed.

?Senior officials decide to post polling personnel just a few days before the day of election. This prevents us from getting a certificate from the local administration to prove that we are involved in election duty which can be used to cast our vote through postal ballot,? said Hembram.

P.N. Purty, a government teacher who has been been kept in the reserve, was aggrieved at not being able to cast his vote. ?First I have been asked to sit idle as a reserve and on top of that kept away from casting my vote. At least we could have been released after the polling began today so that we could cast our votes,? he said