Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal said on Thursday that his office would collect detailed reports on the "workload deaths" of booth-level officers (BLOs) in the state.

Agarwal, who visited Malda on Thursday with a six-member team of the poll panel, also clarified that halting the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, as demanded by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, was a policy decision that only the Election Commission of India could address.

“We have sought detailed reports of the deaths of BLOs from the districts concerned,” he said.

His assertion comes a day after Shanti Muni Oraon, a BLO in the Malbazar subdivision of Jalpaiguri district, committed suicide. She could not handle the pressure of the SIR-related jobs, her family members claimed.

On November 9, BLO Namita Hansda of East Burdwan died of stroke, her husband blaming the huge workload of SIR for her sudden death.

CEO Agarwal and others held a one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting with district magistrate Preeti Goyal and other senior officials at the Malda district collectorate.

Later, talking to newspersons, the Bengal CEO declined to comment on Mamata's letter sent to the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday, asking him to halt the SIR and reassess timelines and methods.

“This is a policy matter that can only be decided by the EC. We are not the appropriate authority to speak on it. Our role is to implement the policies and directives issued by the EC,” he said.

Agarwal expressed satisfaction with the progress of the SIR process in Malda, which shares nearly 170km of international borders with Bangladesh.

“We cannot comment on border-related issues. That is not under our jurisdiction. Those matters fall under the Union home ministry and some other departments,” he said.

He added that those living in riverine islets who found their names in the 2025 electoral rolls but not in the 2002 rolls could provide relevant documents if summoned for verification.

“The district election department will review such cases. Genuine voters who have legally lived in the country for a long time are unlikely to be removed,” Agarwal stated.