A tribal woman deployed as a booth-level officer (BLO) in Jalpaiguri’s Malbazar was found hanging outside her residence on Wednesday morning.
Shanti Muni Oraon’s husband, Sukhu Ekka, claimed his wife was overworked and could not deal with the pressure of the door to door visits for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls underway in Bengal.
“Since the SIR exercise started she had to leave every morning at 7am and could return only around the afternoon,” Ekka told reporters.
Shanti Muni Oraon, 46, was employed with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme and could neither converse nor read and write Bengali, which made it difficult for her to fulfil her responsibilities as a BLO, local media reported.
She was given the responsibility of carrying out the distribution of the enumeration forms the 101 booth in Rangamati gram panchayat, around 600 km north of Kolkata.
“She would wake up early in the morning and prepare food for all of us,” Ekka said. “When I woke up, I could not see her anywhere. The food wasn’t ready. I went looking for her outside and then saw her hanging from a tree some distance away from our house.”
Neither the couple nor their college-going son DeSouza Ekka can read Bengali.
The family claimed that some days ago Shanti Muni Oraon had requested the joint block development officer of Malbazar to relieve her as a BLO but she was told to continue.
Namita Hansda, a BLO in East Burdwan’s Kalna, had died of a brain stroke she suffered on the night of 8 November, with neighbours and her family claiming it was brought on by relentless work during the ongoing voter enumeration drive.
Though the SIR exercise was completed smoothly in Bihar with no deaths reported, deaths of over 12 people – apart from two BLOs – have been linked to the SIR exercise in Bengal.
On Sunday morning, Aneesh George, 38, a school employee deployed as a BLO, was found hanging in his Payannur home in Kannur district of Kerala. It was reported that George had to work late hours to complete the SIR exercise ahead of the approaching local body polls.
Bengal and Kerala are among the 12 states and Union Territories where the distribution of enumeration form is being done. Kerala has challenged the exercise in the Supreme Court.
Bengal’s tribal welfare department minister Bulu Chik Baraik went to the home of Shanti Muni.
“Voters have died and BLOs are also dying,” Bairak said. “These are Hindi-speaking people. She was having trouble in her duties as a BLO. The Election Commission must take the responsibility for the unfortunate death.”