Kolkata, 9 December (H.S.) :

The Booth Level Officers’ (BLO) association in West Bengal staged a protest outside the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office in Kolkata on Tuesday, bringing an ailing BLO in an ambulance to highlight what they described as “severe work pressure” during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The protestors claimed that Debashish Das, a 57-year-old BLO from Booth No. 276 under Frasergaunge Gram Panchayat in South 24 Parganas district, suffered a serious brain stroke last week due to excessive workload during the electoral revision exercise.

Leaders of the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee alleged that the Election Commission has “not paid a single rupee” in compensation so far, despite the official suffering health complications while on duty. They said BLOs are under “tremendous stress” to meet strict deadlines imposed for completion of voter list corrections under the SIR programme.

“We demand adequate compensation for Debashish Das and immediate relief from the unbearable workload being forced upon BLOs,” a committee member said during the protest.

The leaders pointed out that the state government provides compensation and ex-gratia to polling personnel who die or are injured while on election duty, and similar provisions should be extended to BLOs who fall ill during Election Commission-assigned work.

“The state government pays ex-gratia for election duty casualties. Why is the Election Commission denying basic compensation to BLOs who suffer health damage while performing mandatory duties?” the protestors questioned.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh