Monday, 24 November 2025
Monday, 24 November 2025
Hundreds of booth level officers (BLOs) marched on the streets of Kolkata on Monday afternoon against what they called excessive work pressure and systemic lapses in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway across the country including Bengal.
The BLOs, comprising teachers, assistant teachers and other frontline government employees and government funded agencies, marched from College street in central Calcutta to the Election Commission’s office at the Balmer & Lawrie building under the banner of BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee.
Since the SIR exercise rolled out early this month, three women BLOs have died in Bengal, two of them by suicide. The last such death happened in Nadia’s Krishnanagar on Saturday morning.
The deaths of BLOs are not restricted to Bengal alone. They have been reported from kerala, as well as BJP ruled Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Mukesh Jangid, 45, allegedly jumped in front of a speeding train in Jaipur last week. The family members claimed that he had been working nonstop for 12 hours a day since the SIR exercise started in the state.
On the same day in Kerala’s Kannur, BLO Aneesh George died by suicide. Since then, three more deaths – two in Bengal and one in Gujarat – have been reported.
Hari Om Barwa, 34, a Class III teacher in a government school in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur, collapsed and died last week. The family reportedly said he was under tremendous stress since the SIR exercise started.
In the 12 states and Union Territories where the SIR exercise is on, the BLOs have to distribute the enumeration forms and collect those from the electors, map with the 2002 electoral rolls – when the last time such an exercise was carried out pan-India – and upload them on the app provided by the Election Commission.
"We have been asked to complete tasks within a short period of time, but such works usually take more than two years," a functionary of the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee said.
The house-to-house enumeration as part of the SIR in Bengal started on 4 November and will continue till 4 December. The draft rolls will be published on December 9.
Another BLO committee member said that the "stress has led to multiple cases of illness."
The committee members warned that if the EC does not extend deadlines or address the concerns raised by the BLOs they would launch a continuous protest programme.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to halt the SIR exercise. One of her arguments against the exercise was that the BLOs were operating beyond human limits.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday cited a Dainik Bhaskar report and claimed 16 BLOs have died across the country.
“Under the guise of SIR, chaos has been unleashed across the country – the result? In three weeks, 16 BLOs have lost their lives. Heart attacks, stress, suicides – SIR is no reform, it’s an imposed tyranny,” Rahul wrote on Sunday on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge too claimed the situation was alarming.
“According to ground realities, these numbers [of BLO deaths] are far higher than what’s reported, which is extremely alarming. Who will deliver justice to these families? The BJP is busy lapping up the cream of power through theft, while EC stands as a mute spectator watching the spectacle. The hasty… forced implementation of SIR without any planning brings back memories of demonetisation and the Covid lockdown,” he said.
In BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, several BLOs in Allahabad have either refused to do their SIR related duties or are shirking away citing anger of the electors – who refuse to accept the forms – at the BLOs.
According to media reports, the district magistrate of Noida has registered FIR against over 60 BLOs and seven supervisors for alleged negligence and disobedience during the ongoing exercise.
The Primary Teacher Federation of Gujarat has demanded Rs 1 crore as compensation for the deceased’s kin, and clear guidelines for the BLOs. According to sources, those assigned for BLO duties in Gujarat will be paid Rs 2,000.
A BLO from south Calcutta told The Telegraph Online they have been told they would be paid Rs. 12,000-Rs 14,000 as compensation.
“We are yet to receive any reimbursement for the expenses we have incurred like buying files to carry the forms, data packs for data entry and hiring vehicles for travel. There are many BLOs who are yet to receive payment from the electoral verification from previous elections,” the BLO said, requesting anonymity.
