Kolkata, Nov 24 (LatestNewsX) – On Monday, a faction of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) gathered outside the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office in West Bengal to protest the intense pressure of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign. After releasing striking signs, the demonstrators tried to breach the CEO’s building, but police intervened, sparking a brief clash.
By later that day, the show of strength had been called off. Earlier, the BLOs’ Advocacy Protection Committee marched from College Street in north Kolkata to the CEO’s headquarters in the city centre, carrying symbolic lock‑and‑fetter devices to “seal” the main entrance. When they reached the premises, the protesters climbed over police barricades in an effort to penetrate the CEO’s offices.
According to the organizers, the movement was spurred by the Election Commission’s failure to heed their grievances about “excessive and inhuman” workload during the SIR exercise. One BLO told the press, “We have been asked to complete the work within a short period. From distribution of enumeration forms, collecting them from voters and uploading them online, everything has been completed in one month. The same work usually takes more than two years. Several BLOs have fallen sick due to this work.”
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already written to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar urging the poll authorities to suspend the SIR programme in West Bengal. The protest follows the deaths of two women BLOs by suicide—allegedly linked to SIR stress—and a severe stroke suffered by another employee amid the campaign.
The committee warned that, should the Election Commission fail to extend deadlines or take corrective action, a sustained protest movement would spread across the state. sch/pgh
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