An outfit of booth-level officers on Friday wrote to chief minister Mamata Banerjee asking why her government did not provide data entry operators to the Election Commission to assist the BLOs, even as she sent a letter to the poll panel demanding a halt to the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.

“We are happy to learn that you are concerned about the workload and mental pressure of BLOs. We are thankful to you for this. You have even written to the ECI to withhold the SIR process for the time being. Madam, our humble question is: why don’t you help the BLOs by providing data entry operators to the Election Commission?” the Votekarmi and BLO Aikya Mancha wrote in an email to Mamata.

The chief minister had on Thursday fired off a sharply-worded letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, demanding a halt to the SIR process, citing the deaths of several BLOs and describing the process as “dangerous, chaotic and coercive”.

The BLOs said that while Mamata had expressed concern over their harassment because of excessive workload in her letter to the CEC, she should also take steps to help the BLOs on the ground, especially when some leaders of her party had been allegedly threatening them during fieldwork.

“Some leaders have said BLOs should be tied to a tree. A senior leader said BLOs should be shadowed. But, surprisingly, the chief minister did not take any action against those leaders. We demand that the government provide necessary assistance to BLOs before expressing concern over their workload,” said Swapan Mandal, general secretary of the Votekarmi and BLO Aikya Mancha.

A source said that following repeated demands from BLOs for support in the digitisation of enumeration forms, the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) in Bengal had written to the state government seeking 1,000 data entry operators. However, another source said the state government informed the CEO about its inability to provide such a large number of operators.

“There is no doubt that excessive and unthinkable pressure has been put on BLOs. Several are hospitalised. ECI’s as well as political pressure may have driven them to this fate,” a representative of the outfit said.

In the letter, the outfit also demanded compensation for the families of BLOs who died or allegedly committed suicide, and requested the chief minister to stand by those who fell ill because of the unprecedented workload during the SIR.

BLOs in various districts, including East Burdwan, agitated in front of district magistrate offices, demanding financial assistance for the kin of BLOs who died during the SIR process and seeking help for those hospitalised.