A Booth Level Officer (BLO) died under mysterious circumstances during treatment at a Lucknow hospital on Tuesday. The BLO was brought from Gonda to Lucknow for treatment.
As per reports, the BLO’s family alleged that “work pressure of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) led him to consume poison.” They levelled allegations against government officers.
A postmortem was conducted, and the body was handed over to the family. The police was present on the spot.
The BLO was a native of Jaunpur, and the family members left for their hometown with the mortal remains.
A few days back in West Bengal, a BLO , Shanti Muni Ekka, took her own life in Mal, Jalpaiguri due to unbearable pressure from Special Revision of Electoral Rolls (SIR) work.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee claimed that this death marked the 28th such incident since SIR began, with many succumbing to fear, uncertainty, stress, and overload.
In a post on X, she criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) for imposing an unplanned, relentless workload, compressing a 3-year process into 2 months and urged the ECI to act with conscience and halt the drive to prevent further loss of life.
“Deeply shocked and saddened. Today again, we lost a Booth Level Officer in Mal, Jalpaiguri Smt Shanti Muni Ekka, a tribal lady, an anganwadi worker who took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work. 28 people have already lost their lives since SIR began some due to fear and uncertainty, others due to stress and overload. Such precious lives are being lost because of the unplanned, relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Commission of India. A process that earlier took 3 years is now being forced into 2 months on the eve of elections to please political masters, putting inhuman pressure on BLOS. I urge the ECI to act with conscience and immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives are lost,” she added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Congress MP Jebi Mather had also expressed her shock and grief over the alleged suicide of a Booth Level Officer (BLO) in Kerala’s Kannur, claiming that the incident is due to the immense pressure faced by BLOs in conducting the Special Revision of electoral rolls.
