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Kolkata, Nov 19 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday sought a detailed report from the District Magistrate (also District Election Officer) of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri on the suicide of a woman booth-level officer (BLO) in the Mall Bazaar area of the same district, reportedly due to the workload of the Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) exercise.
The commission had sought the report hours after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee issued a strong social media statement holding the ECI responsible for the BLO’s suicide.
He also claimed that the Commission’s undue pressure on BLOs to complete the vetting process in just two months has put immense pressure on the BLOs and the lady officer of the Mall Market was the first victim of that workload.
On the instructions of the ECI, West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal on Wednesday afternoon directed the District Electoral Officer of Jalpaiguri to send a report in the matter as soon as possible, an insider in the CEO office confirmed.
“Once the CEO gets the report, he will send it to the ECI headquarters in New Delhi,” confirmed an insider in the CEO’s office.
The suicide occurred at a time when the four-member central ECI team is in Bengal on a four-day visit to review the progress of SIR in the state.
Family members of the deceased BLO alleged that she decided to end her life as she could not bear the pressure of SIR work. According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Shantimani Ekka, resident of Rangamati Panchayat, Mall Bazaar.
He was recently given the responsibility of SIR work. Being a BLO, she was distributing enumeration forms door-to-door and collecting the filled forms.
Earlier this month, a female BLO died of brain stroke due to work pressure. The incident took place in Memari in East Burdwan district. The deceased was identified as Namita Hansda, who was an Anganwadi worker by profession.
She was working as BLO of booth number 278 of Chowk Balrampur in Memari and suffered a brain stroke after a tiring day of going door-to-door to distribute enumeration forms.
–IANS
Source/Red