On Wednesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote in X that Shanti Muni Ekka, an anganwadi employee and tribal girl, “has taken her personal life below the insufferable strain of the continued SIR operation.” She stated A complete of 28 individuals have misplaced their lives since SIR started. “Some are as a result of concern and nervousness, and others are as a result of stress and overload.”
Earlier on Sunday, BLO Aneesh George, a college scholar by occupation, died by suicide. At house in Kerala. Yadu Krishnan P., sub-inspector of Kannur Peringom police station, who’s investigating the investigation. George’s He confirmed to ThePrint that he died by hanging and an post-mortem revealed that it was suicide. His household stated he was below excessive stress at work.
“Presently, we’re investigating the reason for loss of life. Now we have already questioned colleagues on the college and the household,” Yadu stated. He added that the investigation had not but discovered something revealing. George achieved 90 % The district collector claimed that BLO’s loss of life was not work-related.
The day after the tragedy, BLO linked up with a number of organizations. Service organizations went on a one-day strike in Kerala, alleging extreme workload and stress.
On the identical day, Mukesh Jangid, a authorities instructor and BLO in Jaipur, Rajasthan, reportedly died by suicide on Monday.. Police say he jumped in entrance of a practice and left a observe citing the strain of his SIR job.
A couple of days in the past, BLO from East Burdwan in West Bengal staged a protest in Katwa. They attributed this to SIR’s “extreme psychological stress” and “large workload”, which got here days after the loss of life of one other BLO, Namita Hansda. Medical doctors on the hospital the place she was declared useless stated she had suffered a stroke, in line with stories. Her husband claims that stress was the trigger.
“Such valuable lives are being misplaced as a result of unplanned and relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Fee of India. A course of that used to take three years is now compelled into two months on the eve of elections to please the political institution, placing inhuman strain on the BLO.” Mamata Banerjee stated In her publish, she appealed to the ECI to cease driving “earlier than extra lives are misplaced”.
In Tamil Nadu, the Federation of Income Staff Associations (FERA) has known as for a boycott of SIR from Tuesday. FERA stated BLOs, supervisors, civil society employees, academics and Assistant Election Registration Officers (AEROs) are coping with continued workload. Moreover, FERA says some collectors are holding evaluate conferences late into the night time or holding three video conferences a day.
“SIR is being pushed ahead swiftly with none planning for the fact on the bottom,” a senior FERA official instructed ThePrint.
BLO will distribute enumeration kinds to voters, accumulate them and add the information to the app. What’s BLO? typical A authorities or quasi-government official who’s acquainted with the citizens and who is mostly an citizens within the space. BLOs aren’t full-time election staff and may fit as academics, anganwadi staff, panchayat secretaries, postmen, auxiliary nurses, noon meal staff, or contract academics.
ECI maintains that SIR is on observe. Its each day bulletin reveals the progress of all 12 States/UTs. Since ECI launched SIR this yr, Out of round 51 million registered voters in these 12 states/UTs, 98.89 per cent have acquired enumeration kinds. Nevertheless, as of 3pm on November 20, 2025, solely 20.19 % of kinds have been digitized.
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“How lengthy ought to I work?”
BLO already exists in Kerala Newly said that they’re having issue assembly the SIR deadline. Duty weighs on you greater than you anticipated. There are over 25,000 BLOs in Kerala.
Many BLOs and organizations that took half in Monday’s protests instructed ThePrint that regardless of a number of visits to their houses, they haven’t been in a position to meet voters.
Abdul Nazar, a instructor at a authorities larger secondary college in Manjeri, Malappuram, had undergone SIR coaching on November 3. In line with the preliminary coaching, the BLO’s solely accountability was to distribute and accumulate record kinds from every family below the sales space. They had been educated to name booth-level brokers for assist if wanted.
Nazar instructed ThePrint {that a} deadline of December 4 has been set to finish the distribution of 1,136 sheets. Nazar stated that would have been achievable, however the lack of streamlined work has made it troublesome, together with stress.
“We had solely acquired 200 kinds by November eighth. The problem is that you simply can not set the order by which the houses are visited. Of the preliminary 45 kinds we acquired, all had been from different houses.. Even when we went to these houses, we couldn’t give kinds to each voter there,” he stated.
In a single such case, solely two sheets of paper had been distributed to a household of 4, however the household contacted a neighborhood politician, who in flip known as Nazar and questioned him concerning the situation. Though his household and politicians ultimately understood his logic, he was subjected to many days of pointless stress.
Equally, on November 14, BLO acquired a message. ECI officers had a direct assembly with the BLO who had didn’t distribute the 75 tickets. % of type. Till then, Nazar had been serving to voters fill out their particulars on ballots, however he stopped doing so. Now he simply has to distribute kinds to satisfy deadlines.
Nazar stated he acquired one other message over the weekend when BLO returned to work. The message was that it will take 3 days to add all paperwork.
“They should make clear our accountability. First, we had been requested to distribute and accumulate. However then we discovered that it takes three days to add and scan. How can they add so many paperwork by way of telephone in three days? How lengthy have they got to work? They should make clear,” he added.
Pertaining to the BLO suicide in Kannur, Nazar stated he managed to cope with it due to his years of expertise and familiarity with the realm.however many New BLOs could also be combating the method.
In Tamil Nadu, FERA demanded extra month-to-month salaries as compensation for officers concerned within the course of. The state’s SIR course of requires BLOs to distribute and accumulate voter identification kinds, cross-check information, add knowledge on-line and attend frequent evaluations.
Officers answerable for the SIR’s work concern a repeat of what occurred with the 2002 election regulation reform. In 2004, the ECI found severe errors and ordered a whole redo of the 2002 course of. With complaints already coming from all political events, officers are actually privately apprehensive that it’s going to occur once more. In the meantime, ECI has set an incentive of Rs 10 for every enumeration type.
In the meantime, ECI officers say It had little impact on work. by Protest, SIR Staff Income Officer stated“If the strike continues for various days, there’s a danger {that a} backlog will construct up, which could possibly be troublesome to clear by December 4.”
What BLO does
The ECI’s October 27 order directed to conduct SIR workouts in 9 states and three union territories.
The BLO is distributing record kinds to all current voters via door-to-door door-to-door canvassing each day. We additionally present data to the general public on the right way to fill out the shape. We then accumulate the finished kinds and add them each day to the BLO app or ECINet. It’s also possible to add the shape on-line your self.
For these electors whose record kinds haven’t been submitted, the BLO ought to establish doable causes similar to “absenteeism/switch/loss of life/duplication” based mostly on inquiries from neighboring electors and pay attention to the identical.
The deadline for all procedures is December 4th. Draft rolls can be printed on December ninth.
In August this yr, whereas the SIR course of was underway in Bihar, the ECI had doubled the annual remuneration of BLOs. The remuneration of BLO supervisors concerned within the preparation and revision of electoral rolls was additionally elevated. Amongst different issues, ECI has elevated the annual remuneration from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000. It additionally authorised a particular incentive of Rs 6,000 to BLOs for SIRs, beginning with Bihar.
“The Electoral Roll Group, comprising Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Election Registrar Officers (AEROs), BLO Supervisors and Sales space Stage Officers (BLOs), has put in lots of effort and performs a significant position in producing a good and clear electoral roll.” press notes He identified that the final time such remuneration was revised was in 2015.
After George’s loss of life, the Kannur district collector issued a press launch stating that 1,065 identify sheets had been allotted to him, of which solely 50 had been distributed.
The press launch claimed that “at no stage did we impose any particular aims, pressures or deadlines on him (George). Primarily based on the data presently out there from police and administrative investigations, no hyperlink has been established between the SIR-related assignments and the unlucky loss of life of BLO.”
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blame sport
In Kerala too, the Congress-led opposition events have claimed that the BLO is below strain from the ruling CPI(M). The Kerala Non-Gazetted Officers (NGOs) Affiliation, a service group affiliated with the Congress, blamed the Kannur incident on harassment by native CPI(M) staff within the backdrop of Aneesh being accompanied by the Congress BLA throughout his project.
“It is not simply work stress. Along with work strain, there’s additionally political strain from the ruling social gathering. It shouldn’t be taken evenly. Aneesh was harassed by native CPI(M) staff when he accompanied the Congress BLA,” stated Chabala Jayakumar, president of the Kerala NGO Affiliation.
In the meantime, CPI(M) Thiruvananthapuram district secretary V. Pleasure accused the Congress of attempting to revenue from the tragedy.
“Their solely job is to distribute and accumulate paperwork. How can we affect that?” Pleasure requested when contacted by ThePrint. He added that each one political events have requested that the SIR be launched after the native physique polls. In any case, many BLOs do work associated to native authorities elections.
“Everyone seems to be busy doing native bodily examinations now. Nobody has time to test the method or give it some thought,” Pleasure stated. “that (ECI) They hope to launch the ultimate record by Dec. 9, when the state votes in native authorities polls… They’re in a rush. ”
“Extreme pressure”
The Kerala authorities is combating the case all the best way to the Supreme Courtroom. On Monday, the corporate filed a brand new petition looking for a postponement of the SIR train. In that petition, Seen by ThePrintfamous that the state will vote in municipal polls in two phases on the ninth and eleventh. december.
The petition claims that along with 68,000 safety personnel, 176,000 personnel are wanted for native authorities polls. An extra 25,668 employees can be required to implement the SIR.
“It will place a extreme burden on the state administration and convey the day-to-day administrative operations to a standstill…The identical employees can be posted for election-related duties in SIR and LSGI,” the state authorities submitted.
Final week, Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel additionally flagged these administrative issues. He additionally stated that he has requested the state authorities to postpone the zilla panchayat elections till the SIR is accomplished. Then on Tuesday, the ballot scheduled for December thirteenth was held as follows. postponed Till December twentieth.
Other than Bihar, the Supreme Courtroom is listening to petitions difficult the train in numerous states together with Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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