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West Bengal: BLO dies of cardiac arrest, family alleges he was overworked due to SIR
A booth-level officer engaged in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls died of cardiac arrest in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, PTI reported on Friday.
Zakir Hossain, a primary school teacher, complained of severe chest pain and collapsed within minutes, his family said. He died on Thursday night, The Telegraph reported.
Hossain's family alleged he had been under “tremendous pressure” balancing voter roll revision duties alongside regular teaching work. They also alleged that the school had not relieved him of classroom responsibilities despite repeated requests, The Telegraph reported.
West Bengal is among 12 states and Union Territories where the Election Commission began the enumeration phase of the exercise on November 4.
This is the fourth death of a booth-level officer reported in the state since the exercise began.
Earlier this month, a booth-level officer in the Purba Bardhaman district died of a heart attack, PTI reported.
One official was found hanging in her home in Jalpaiguri district on November 19, while another was found hanging at her home in Krishnanagar in the Nadia district on November 22. The families of both the women alleged that they had been under severe pressure because of the revision workload.
The deaths have sparked a political row in the state.
The Trinamool Congress, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has accused the Election Commission of burdening BLOs with an “inhumane” and “unplanned” workload.
On November 20, Banerjee urged the poll panel to suspend the revision of electoral rolls in the state, saying “the human cost of this mismanagement is now unbearable”.
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, however, rejected the allegations, saying that the stress that the officers faced stemmed not from the Election Commission's directives but from political and administrative pressure exerted by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress.
Amid the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the country, at least seven suicides by booth-level officers and two deaths due to stroke have been reported.
The task of preparing voter lists before elections is typically assigned to primary school teachers and anganwadi or health care workers, who are employed by state governments. They are required to go door-to-door and check the identities of new voters and verify the details of those who have died or permanently moved out of an area.
In the commission's parlance, they are called booth-level officers. Each booth-level officer is responsible for maintaining the voter list for one polling booth, which can sometimes have as many as 1,500 registered voters.
The draft electoral rolls for the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9, while the final ones will be published on February 7.
Several petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court against the exercise over concerns that the special intensive revision of voter rolls could disenfranchise eligible voters.
The voter list revision in Bihar was announced by the poll panel in June and completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November. In the final electoral roll published on September 30, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded.
Source: Scroll
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Just days after launching its fifth store in India, Apple has launched the Fitness+ service in the country. With the India expansion, Apple's fitness and wellness service has now expanded to 49 countries around the world. What is Apple Fitness+?Apple Fitness+ is a subscription-based workout service
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