The Election Commission of India has asked district magistrates to inquire into complaints that over 2,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) were appointed in violation of poll panel guidelines.
Poll panel sources said the complaints were considered to be serious as the BLOs play the role of the eyes and ears of the EC during electoral roll revision. Bengal is likely to undergo the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls next month.
EC sources refused to disclose the identity of the complainants.
“The booths from where complaints have come are spread across Bengal. The DMs have been asked to look into each complaint and submit a report to the Bengal chief electoral officer at the earliest,” said an EC source.
Earlier, the EC asked the state to appoint BLOs from the pool of permanent state government employees in the Group C category and above. In case it is found that there was no eligible employee in a booth, a central government employee or a contractual employee of the state government can be appointed as the BLO. For this, prior approval from the chief election officer is needed.
“Now, complaints have come that in about 2,000 booths, contractual employees have been appointed as BLOs despite there being government employees who meet the EC criteria. As the complaint is serious in nature, the EC has asked the DMs to file reports at the earliest,” said another official.
A senior official said the EC wanted regular state government employees only as BLOs.
“The role of the BLOs is vital during the revision of rolls. As representatives of the EC, they visit homes to check if any voter figuring in the existing rolls have died or shifted elsewhere. In case of applications for inserting names in the rolls, reports of the BLOs are crucial,” explained the official.
“But it was found in the past that many BLOs did not perform their duties properly. As a result, fictitious voters were inserted in the rolls or names of dead and shifted voters were not deleted. If BLOs are regular government employees, the EC can take penal measures against them,” the official added.
The issue became sensitive in Bengal after the EC detected several fictitious voters in the past few months during sample checks of new insertions in the voter list.
“The EC asked the state to initiate action against the EROs and AEROs as they were regular government employees. If such irregularities are found in future, the EC can take action against the BLOs too,” said a source.
Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal has written to the principal secretary of school education department, asking him to ensure that teachers of state-aided schools join duty as BLOs after complaints cropped up that some teachers refused appointment letters as BLOs.
“Some teachers even refused to respond to showcause notices after they did not report to BLO duty despite a Calcutta High Court order. The school education secretary has been asked to direct the teachers to join BLO duty at the earliest or else face penal measures,” said a senior official.