Seven BLOs in Kolkata issued show-cause notice by EC for poor performance

Kolkata: Seven Booth Level Officers (BLOs) of Kolkata North region's Beliaghata have been showcaused by the Election Commission for their poor performance and slow pace of digitization of the Enumeration forms. The development comes close on the heels of the recent meeting held in Kolkata on November 18, by the four member Election Commission of India (ECI) team, led by Gyanesh Bharti, as part of their ongoing visit to review and monitor the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal.

The seven BLOs, who have been shocaused, had been asked to reply by Friday noon by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of 164 Beliaghata Constituency and have been asked to show the reason behind their "poor" performance which has impacted the performance of the entire assembly in a "negative" manner.
"It has been seen that the progress of digitization work of the above-mentioned parts is too poor to mention, resulting in an overall negative impact throughout the entire Assembly Constituency," the ERO said in the showcause notice.


In absence of proper reply to the show cause notice, it might lead to penal action. The EC had asked to conduct digitization of the 30% of the collected EFs while the rate of digitization in Kolkata North had been 4% to 8%.

"If the digitization of EFs is not completed in an expedited manner, then the entire digitization process would be delayed and not get completed within December 4," an official said. The official said that though the BLOs are collecting the forms, they are unwilling to digitize it.

The officials are aware of the glitches in the BLO App. However, the digitization needs to be completed within due time, EC sources said.

During the recent meeting held in Kolkata, ECI team had instructed the DEOs, EROs and AEROs of Kolkata North and South to pull up their socks and expedite the digitization process.

Till 6.00 pm, the total percentage of enumeration forms (EFs) digitised stood at 1.95 crore, or 25.5%. The total EFs distributed is at 7.64 crore, which is 99.73%.