Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday directed the District Magistrate and District Election Officer of Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, to submit a detailed report on the suicide of a female Booth-Level Officer (BLO) at Mal Bazar earlier in the day. The incident is reportedly linked to the workload of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted by the commission.
The commission sought the report hours after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee issued a strong social media statement holding the ECI responsible. She claimed that the commission’s undue pressure on BLOs to complete the revision exercise within just two months has placed enormous stress on them, with the Mal Bazar officer becoming the first victim of the workload.
Following ECI instructions, West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal instructed the District Election Officer of Jalpaiguri to submit the report at the earliest, an insider from the CEO’s office confirmed. “Once the CEO receives the report, it will be forwarded to the ECI headquarters in New Delhi,” the source added.
The suicide occurred while a four-member central ECI team was visiting Bengal for a four-day review of the SIR progress in the state.
The deceased BLO has been identified as Shantimani Ekka, a resident of Rangamati Panchayat in Mal Bazar. She had recently been assigned SIR responsibilities and was conducting door-to-door visits to distribute and collect enumeration forms. Her family alleged that she ended her life due to the immense pressure of the work.
This is the second such incident this month linked to SIR duties. Earlier, a female BLO, Namita Hansda, an Anganwadi worker, died of a brain stroke due to work stress in Memari, East Burdwan district. Hansda was serving as BLO for booth number 278 of Chowk Balrampur in Memari and reportedly suffered the stroke after a long day of door-to-door enumeration.
With IANS inputs