Nearly 60 per cent of 81,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) in Bengal have to be replaced as the Election Commission of India (ECI) made it clear on Thursday that only state government employees and semi-government staff in the Group C and above could be appointed as BLOs.

It will be easier said than done for district magistrates, who are district election officers, to select eligible BLOs by June 20 for the mandatory summary roll revision that starts in October.

BLOs are the eyes and ears of the poll panel in preparing error-free electoral rolls. They are responsible for keeping a record of voters who have died or attained the age of 18 years to become eligible for the inclusion of their names in the electoral roll.

Previously, the ECI had allowed states to appoint BLOs from 13 categories of employees, who were attached to the state governments by any means. These include employees like teachers, amins, panchayat secretaries, electricity bill readers, postmen, auxiliary nurses, health workers, village level workers, mid-day meal workers and corporation tax collectors.

But the new guideline issued by the ECI on Thursday made it clear that only state government and semi-government employees in the Group C category and above could be made BLOs.

“ERO (Electoral Registration Officer, who are usually BDOs or SDOs) to appoint a BLO for each part of an electoral roll, under section 138 (2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, amongst any Group C and above regular serving employees of state/local government enrolled as electoral in that part,” reads the guideline issued on June 5.

The ECI made it clear that the appointments of the BLOs would have to be completed by June 20.

Sources said employees of panchayats, panchayat samitis, zilla parishads, municipalities and corporations are known as local or semi-government employees.

In case the authorities fail to find any employee who fulfils the criteria, they can appoint anganwadi workers, contractual teachers or central government employees as BLOs. But in that case, the authorities concerned have to submit a non-availability certificate to the chief electoral officer.

“In the absence of regular state/local government employees, ERO may appoint BLO amongst Anganwadi workers, contract teachers or central government employees. However, in such cases, CEO shall obtain a non-availability certificate signed by ERO and countersigned by DEO", the guideline further reads.

Sources in the poll panel said the guideline was issued for all states, but it would have a larger impact on Bengal as the authorities largely appointed village-level workers as the BLOs.

“This is a practice that had started in the Left Front tenure. As BLOs are the most important persons for inclusion or deletion of names in and from the electoral rolls, the ruling parties wanted to push their sympathisers into that position to have control over the electoral roll of a booth. This is why about 50,000 of the 81,000 BLOs could be found ineligible in Bengal now,” said a bureaucrat.

None in the state government agreed to comment on the issue, officially saying they were yet to be informed about the new guideline.

“We have already shared the details of 7,10,559 state government and semi-government employees. Of them, 6,29,535 are in the category of Group C and above. So, we hope that we will find the required number of BLOs without much trouble. In case of any booth, where a state or local government employee is not available, we would go for alternatives as specified by the ECI,” said an official.

The move by the poll panel became a point of discussion in the administrative circles as many felt that the ECI would leave no stone unturned to prepare an error-free electoral roll after questions were raised whether electoral rolls were free of ghost voters in the past few elections.

“The BLOs are the most important officers who can keep the electoral rolls free from bogus voters. So the poll panel wanted people who would be accountable for their jobs. As the officers would be under the deputation of the ECI during the roll revision, it can punish any employee in case of any misdeed on their part,” said a source in the ECI.