BLO hospitalised in West Bengal, family claims 'stress' due to SIR Duty
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Kolkata: A Booth Level Officer participating in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal was hospitalised in South 24 Parganas after feeling unwell due to ‘Stress’, NDTV reported.
The incident comes after two BLOs died by suicide allegedly due to work pressure, causing a face-off between Mamata Banerjee government and the Election Commission.
Kamal Naskar, headmaster of a primary school, was carrying out the process at Joynagar in Bengal's South 24 Parganas district when he felt unwell, according to the report.
Though his family members said that Kamal Naskar was hospitalized after feeling unwell due to stress, doctors have not yet issued any statement about his health condition.
‘I got the forms on November 13 and distributed them. Now it was time to collect the filled-out forms from the voters. I was asked to finish the job by the 26th. I have fallen ill due to the tension that I may miss the deadline,’ he was quoted as saying.
His family claimed that Naskar felt unwell after came home from a meeting of BLOs yesterday where they were instructed to collect application forms and submit them by November 26. He was rushed to a private nursing home.
Meanwhile Bishwanath Das, the local MLA, alleged that there was ‘huge workload on BLOs’.
The incident follows a day after a BLO, Rinku Tarafdar, was found hanging at her home in Bengal's Nadia district.
Rinku Tarafdar's family alleged that she died by suicide as she was under huge stress from the SIR work.
‘I wanted to live. My family lacks nothing. But, for this modest job, they pushed me to such humiliation that I was left with no choice but to die. The Election Commission is responsible for this,’ a note found at 52-year-old Tarafdar's home said.
It further added that ‘I cannot bear this inhuman workload. I am a part-time teacher, and my salary is very low compared to my effort, yet they will not relieve me. I had completed 95 per cent of the offline work, but I was unable to manage the online tasks. Despite informing the BDO office and my supervisor, no action was taken.’
Responding to it, Chief Minister Banerjee posted on X: ‘How many more lives will be lost? How many more need to die for this SIR? How many more dead bodies shall we see for this process? This has become truly alarming now!!’