West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) for failing Block Level Officers (BLOs) at the forefront of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the electoral roll, even as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused it of spreading panic.
BJP leader and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar, who visited a voter assistance booth at Balurghat in his Lok Sabha constituency of South Dinajpur, said the TMC has spread baseless panic among people that those excluded from the electoral roll will be declared undocumented immigrants. “Genuine citizens will never be affected,” Majumdar said.
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh cited the inconvenience BLOs have been complaining about and blamed the ECI for it. “The ECI should have given proper training to the BLOs and provided them with logistic support. It is not unnatural for people to break down under pressure,” Ghosh said.
A State Election Commission official said a four-member ECI team will visit Kolkata and adjoining areas next week and look into the technical issues encountered during the distribution of SIR enumeration forms.
BLOs involved in the SIR have complained about work pressure. “I collapsed during a meeting with my supervisor. It is impossible to meet the targets being set every day. We are facing problems while distributing the enumeration forms,” Animesh Nandy, a BLO in Kolkata, told journalists as he was being taken to a hospital. His family said he had to report for duty despite having a fever since Saturday.
In the adjoining Howrah, Sabita Mondal, another BLO, said they have been going door-to-door all day distributing forms. “Now we have been told to provide the inputs through the ECI’s phone app. We did not get any training for this,” she said. “It is taking over 10 minutes to key in the input for just one voter. The app is slow and also shuts down. How can we finish this work on time when there are over 1,000 voters per booth and only one BLO to do the work?”
Dipankar Dey, a BLO in Siliguri, said they were given unrealistic targets. “Some voters are asking questions to which we do not have answers. Others call even late at night to clear their confusion. This is an impossible situation.”
BLOs took to the streets on Saturday at Tikiapara and Barrackpore in the North 24 Parganas district and Kandi in Murshidabad.
Namita Hansda, a BLO in East Burdwan district, died on November 9. Madhab Hansda, her husband, said that she was under stress.
The BJP has accused BLOs of violating the ECI’s guidelines while distributing enumeration forms and has set up assistance booths to help voters fill the forms.
December 4 is the deadline for the SIR enumeration process announced on October 27 for nine states and three Union territories. The first draft electoral roll is due to be published on December 9.Assembly polls in West Bengal are expected to be held in March-April 2026.
www.hindustantimes.com
#TMC #criticises #ECI #failing #BLOs #BJP #accuses #spreading #panic #SIR
