West Bengal BLOs claim facing technical glitches

Kolkata: Block-level officers (BLOs) in West Bengal claimed that they were facing severe technical glitches and malfunctioning of the BLO app since Wednesday night. BLOs reported problems during the last leg of the process of digitisation of enumeration forms in various parts of the state, especially in Kolkata North and South, and South and North 24 Parganas districts. A top official from the West Bengal chief election officer's office said they have taken up the server problem with the Election Commission of India.

Complaints on app malfunctioning have started pouring in from various parts of the state amid the ongoing allegations about "tremendous work pressure" by BLOs.

ECI officials said BLOs have been instructed to collect forms and do the rest of the digitisation together as they were facing problems.


As per ECI data, the digitisation of 6.35 crore (82.91%) EFs have been completed as of 3 pm on Thursday.

"Around 50% of BLOs have completed 100% of their work," a senior official at the ECI office said.

According to ECI sources, the percentage of digitisation in Kolkata North stood at 58%, Kolkata South 64%, Kalimpong 75%, North 24 Parganas 75%, South 24 Parganas 80%, Howrah 76%, East & West Medinipur 85%, Bankura 85%, East Burdwan 88%, Jhargram 87% and West Burdwan 70%. The digitisation will continue till December 4 and the draft rolls will be published on December 9.

"The glitch has been a constant problem from the beginning. Last night, the app suddenly started malfunctioning and stopped working at around 11 pm. We were informed that it is getting updated and they asked us to stop work till 12 am. We updated the app as instructed," Mithu Dhali, a BLO from Sunderbans, told ET.

"It is a time-bound job. So, we have appealed to extend the timeline. The time-period is short and the app is not working properly," the BLO said.

In several cases, the message 'No records found' has been popping up.

Another BLO told ET: "We are not able to submit the forms since Thursday morning. It is showing 'no record found', and when we are taking photographs, it is saying "try again".