Bengal BLOs protest over deaths, stress during revision of electoral rolls

Kolkata, A section of BLOs on Monday staged a protest in front of the office of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer, alleging that the EC has remained indifferent to the deaths of several BLOs during the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.

The protesters, who are members of the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee, claimed that BLOs across the state have been under "tremendous mental and physical pressure" ever since the revision exercise began, with the workload taking a serious toll on their health.

Several officers, they alleged, had "broken down during training programmes" due to stress linked to tight deadlines, extensive field verification, and scrutiny of large volumes of data.


The agitating BLOs also cited reports of multiple deaths of officers in different districts since the revision process started, a development that has triggered concern in both administrative and political circles.

Questioning the commission's response, the protesters asked why no compensation had been announced for booth-level officers (BLOs) who fall ill or die while performing revision-related duties.

"The state government provides compensation in cases of casualties during election duty. Why is the EC denying even basic support to BLOs who fall ill or die while carrying out mandatory work assigned by it?" a protester said.

The demonstration was held in front of the office of the CEO, with the committee demanding immediate intervention, workload rationalisation and a formal compensation policy for BLOs engaged in the SIR exercise.

Following the first phase of the SIR on December 16, the draft electoral rolls showed the electorate in the state shrinking from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, with over 58 lakh names deleted.

The second phase of the exercise involves hearings of 1.67 crore electors under scrutiny, including 1.36 crore cases flagged for logical discrepancies and 31 lakh electors whose records lack proper mapping, officials said.