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Kolkata: District Magistrates, who are also District Election Officers in West Bengal, have been advised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to be especially careful while selecting para-teachers as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in their respective districts for the Special Intensive Review (SIR) to be conducted in the state.
District Election Officers have also been advised by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to check whether any para-teacher has already been inducted as BLO and if such a case is found, appoint a person meeting the criteria laid down by the Commission for selection as BLO in place of the concerned BLO.
Amid complaints from opposition parties in the matter, a warning has been issued to district election officials on potentially involving para-teachers as BLOs, citing specific examples.
As per the order of the Commission, permanent employees of the state government covered under retirement benefits like provident fund, pension and gratuity and permanent teachers in state-run schools should have the first priority for selection as BLOs.
In exceptional cases where such permanent State Government employees or permanent teachers are involved elsewhere, contractual State Government employees may be considered for selection as BLOs, subject to concurrence from the CEO office.
Para-teachers are contractual teachers appointed to fill the gaps in the education system in states, especially in schools with teacher shortages or in remote areas. Mainly the concept of appointment of para-teachers in West Bengal is compared to other states.
Meanwhile, an insider in the CEO office said district election officials have also been advised to address complaints of BLOs about intimidation for inclusion of “false names” in the voter list.
Earlier this week, as part of the Electoral Workers Unity Forum, the BLOs had written a letter to CEO, West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, informing him about the threats and intimidation received by several people for including “false names” and demanded that they be given security when they go to booth level areas for election duty as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Election Commission. Needed.
These BLOs complained that some of them were shown guns to scare them.
–IANS