The Uttar Pradesh government has served notices to 20 anganwadi workers, who were engaged as booth-level officers (BLOs) for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Varanasi district, for allegedly failing to complete their assigned work.

District programme officer D.K. Singh said some anganwadi workers were not taking their SIR assignments seriously.

“While we are close to the SIR deadline, some BLOs are being very casual about it. We have served notices, expecting them to finish their work within three days. We may terminate their services as anganwadi workers if they don’t pull up their socks and their replies are unsatisfactory,” he said.

A BLO, who is among the 20 who were issued notices, pinned the blame on
the voters.

“People are not serious about the SIR drive. We had given them the enumeration forms but they didn’t submit them. We have visited their homes thrice in the last two weeks. Some were not available at the given addresses and some said they would submit the forms when they wished,” the BLO said on the condition of anonymity.

“The government is free to serve notices and sack us, but what about the senior officers who are not ready to listen to our problems? They are panicking and passing that pressure on to us. Most of the BLOs are working on the ground. Those who are not working are facing genuine problems, and the officers should be sensitive enough to understand them. Getting disinterested in our job is natural when we see the officers ignoring our problems,” she added.

The BLOs are supposed to collect the SIR enumeration forms till December 26. The draft electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on December 31. Voters can submit their objections till January 30 and officials will hear the claims and objections till February 21. The final list will be published on February 28.

The state government had earlier suspended two BLOs each in Sitapur and Bahraich districts.

The government had filed an FIR against 60 BLOs and seven supervisors in Gautam Buddha Nagar a few days ago for not following the Election Commission’s instructions.

Half a dozen BLOs have either committed suicide or died of cardiac arrest in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly because of undue pressure stemming from the SIR work.