2 BLOs 'succumb to SIR work pressure' in MP; 1 found dead in WB

Two teachers-cum-Booth Level Officers (BLOs) tasked with conducting voter list survey for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) died of illness in Raisen and Damoh districts of Madhya Pradesh on Friday, officials said.IMAGE: Booth Level Officer (BLO) and Booth Level Agents (BLAs) interact with residents during the house-to-house distribution of enumeration forms for the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls at Bijoygarh, in Kolkata. Photograph: ANI PhotoRelatives and friends of the deceased teachers-cum-BLOs, however, blamed heavy workload and pressure to meet enumeration targets as the reasons for the deaths.Separately, a BLO has been missing for the past six days in the Raisen district, and efforts are underway to trace him, officials said. The two BLOs 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, sub-divisional officer (SDO) and electoral registration officer of Bhojpur Assembly constituency, Chandrashekhar Shrivastava, told PTI on Saturday.We are waiting for the postmortem report, he said when asked about the exact cause behind Pandeys death.Shrivastava said the missing BLO was identified as Narayan Das Soni, a teacher residing in Bhavya City. He has been missing for six days after leaving home without informing anyone. Police and family members of Soni are searching for him, the officer added.Meanwhile, deceased Pandeys wife, Rekha, and other family members told officials that he was posted at the primary school in Tilakhedi and assigned voter list duties..They 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.He (Ramakant Pandey) joined an online meeting around 9.30 PM on Thursday and collapsed soon after going to the bathroom. He was first taken to Noble Hospital in Bhopal and later shifted to AIIMS, where doctors declared him dead, they said..SDO Shrivastava said Pandeys family members will receive assistance and a compassionate appointment as per rules.In Damoh district, Gond, a teacher working as BLO in Ranjra village, fell ill on Thursday evening while filling enumeration forms, District Education Officer S K Nema told PTI 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.Gonds friends claimed he had been assigned enumerator duties in Ranjra and Kuda Kudan villages. He was under pressure as he was supposed to cover 1,319 voters, but could complete only 13 per cent of the work.Earlier, BLO Shyam Sundar Sharma was killed in a road accident in Tendukheda under the Jabera assembly segment of Damoh district. His family had alleged that he was under severe pressure due to SIR work and had been threatened with suspension.BLO found dead in Bengals Nadia, family claims SIR work-related stressA woman working as a Booth Level Officer (BLO) in West Bengals Nadia district was found dead at her residence on Saturday morning, with her family members claiming that she had been under considerable SIR work-related stress and died by suicide, police said.The BLO, identified as Rinku Tarafdar, was found hanging from the ceiling of her room at her residence in the Bangaljhi area of Chapra in Krishnanagar, an officer said.The family is claiming that she was under immense pressure due to her SIR workload. We have recovered a note from her room. The body has been sent for postmortem. A necessary probe is underway, the officer added.State minister Ujjal Biswas visited the residence of the deceased and spoke to her family members.Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to halt the ongoing SIR in Bengal.On Thursday, she wrote to the CEC, asserting that the continuous unplanned and coercive drive would endanger more lives and also jeopardise the legitimacy of the exercise.On Wednesday, a booth-level officer in Jalpaiguri district was found hanging, with her family claiming that unbearable SIR work pressure was responsible for her death. PTI