Kolkata: Several teachers from state-run schools in West Bengal have lodged complaints with the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging that school authorities are not relieving them from their regular teaching responsibilities to serve as booth-level officers (BLOs) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.
These teacher-BLOs report being compelled to attend their regular classes in the mornings before performing BLO duties in the afternoons. They argue that this dual workload not only causes excessive pressure but also disrupts the process of collecting enumeration forms from voters, digitising these forms, and uploading data via the BLO App.
Sources from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, stated that the ECI is treating these complaints seriously and plans to issue directives to the state government to ensure teachers are excused from teaching tasks while performing BLO roles.
Another issue raised relates to technical difficulties, with BLOs reporting that server overloads are causing delays in uploading enumeration forms. This hampers their ability to meet the daily target of uploading at least 150 forms. The ECI has instructed its technical team to resolve the problem promptly.
As of 6 p.m. on Saturday, the CEO's office confirmed that digitisation of 3.15 crore enumeration forms has been completed. According to the electoral roll dated 27 October, there are 7,66,37,529 electors in West Bengal.
The commission has set 30 November as the deadline for completing the digitisation process, with the entire SIR expected to conclude by March next year.
The last SIR in West Bengal was conducted in 2002.
(Inputs from IANS)