SIR survey takes a toll: Three BLOs dead in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal

Three Booth Level Officers in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal died during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of voter lists, with families citing illness and stress from heavy workloads. One BLO has also been missing in Raisen district

Raisen/Damoh/Nadia: Two teachers-cum-Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen and Damoh districts died of illness on Friday while conducting voter list surveys for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), while a BLO in West Bengal’s Nadia district was found dead at her residence on Saturday, with her family saying she died by suicide, allegedly due to stress from SIR work, officials said.

Separately, a BLO has been missing for the past six days in the Raisen district, and efforts are underway to trace him, officials said.

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The two teachers who died on Friday late night were identified as Ramakant Pandey and Sitaram Gond (50). They were posted in Raisen and Damoh districts, respectively.

“Ramakant Pandey, a teacher from the Satlapur area, was working on the voter list revision drive in Mandideep. He died late Friday night due to some illness,” SDO and electoral registration officer of Bhojpur constituency Chandrashekhar Shrivastava said on Saturday.

Deceased Pandey’s wife, Rekha, and other family members claimed he struggled with a heavy workload, which forced him to put in extra hours every night to finish assignments. They claimed Pandey received constant instructions over the phone to meet deadlines.

He feared suspension if targets were unmet and had not slept for the past four nights, Rekha Pandey claimed.

In Damoh district, Gond, a teacher working as BLO in Ranjra village, fell ill on Thursday while filling enumeration forms, District Education Officer SK Nema said on Saturday.

“He was taken to the district hospital in Damoh and referred to Jabalpur district for advanced health care in a critical condition, where he died during treatment on Friday night”, the officer said.

Gond’s friends claimed he was under pressure as he was supposed to cover 1,319 voters, but could complete only 13 per cent of the work.

Meanwhile, a woman working as a BLO in West Bengal’s Nadia was found hanging at her residence on Saturday, with her family members claiming that she was under considerable SIR work-related stress.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed shock over the BLO’s death and said this has become “truly alarming now”.

In a “suicide note” shared by the CM, the deceased held the ECI responsible for this consequence. Senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha, however, claimed that the suicide note is fake.

The ruling Trinamool Congress claimed that 34 people, including BLOs, have died during the ongoing SIR exercise which began on November 4, and demanded that the ECI take responsibility for these deaths.