KOLKATA: One more Booth Level Officer (BLO) died by suicide in West Bengal on Wednesday allegedly due to tremendous work pressure in connection with the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Hours after the BLO’s death, chief minister Mamata Banerjee came down heavily on the Election Commission of India (ECI) alleging precious lives are lost due work pressure and stress generated by the SIR process in the state.
She urged the commission to “immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives are lost”.
The incident took place hardly 10 days after a BLO in East Burdwan, Namita Hansda, died of a cerebral attack allegedly triggered by relentless work pressure during the ongoing electoral roll revision drive. Namita was an Anganwadi worker and had been assigned as the BLO for Booth No. 278 in Chak Balarampur, Memari.
On Wednesday, Shanti Muni Ekka, a resident of Rangamati panchayat in the Malbazar area of Jalpaiguri district, who was engaged as BLO in the rural belt died by suicide. Police recovered the body and sent it for postmortem examination.
Family members of the deceased alleged that she could not bear the work pressure because of rigorous duty related to distribution and collection of enumeration forms from the voters.
The state OBC minister Buluchik Baraik visited the bereaved family members.
Mamata slammed the national poll body on her X handle post this afternoon saying, “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 said.
Banerjee urged the Election Commission to "act with conscience" and suspend the drive immediately, warning that more lives may be lost if the current pace of SIR work continues. "I urge the ECI to act with conscience and immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives", she said.
TMC leaders have repeatedly accused the ECI of advancing deadlines and burdening BLOs with excessive field verification tasks in the run-up to the polls. The ruling party has maintained that several workers have collapsed due to long working hours, travel requirements, and pressure to meet deadlines.
There was no immediate response from the ECI to the chief minister's allegations.
Opposition parties, however, have dismissed the TMC's accusations, saying the government is attempting to deflect responsibility for poor administrative support to field-level workers.
(With inputs from PTI.)