• Source:JND
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Bengal News: A booth level officer (BLO) was found dead in the courtyard of her home in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district on Wednesday. The deceased, identified as Shantimoni Ekka, was discovered by her family early in the morning in what police suspect to be a case of death by suicide. Her death has intensified the ongoing debate over the SIR workload, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sharply criticising the pressure placed on BLOs and calling the drive “unplanned” and “inhuman.”

According to her family members, Ekka had been under severe mental strain for several weeks. They alleged that the pressure of continuous field duties and tasks linked to the ongoing election-related work had taken a toll on her. Her husband and child claimed that the workload had become overwhelming and left her deeply distressed.

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According to a NDTV report, Police have sent the body for post-mortem examination and started an inquiry to confirm the cause of death. The family’s allegation of “work pressure” has come at a time when the state is undertaking a large-scale special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

This comes at a time when Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti and a team of officials are on a visit to West Bengal to assess the progress of the SIR exercise. The ECI delegation, which reached the state on Tuesday, is reviewing the revision work in Kolkata North, Kolkata South and South 24 Parganas and is scheduled to inspect the situation in Nadia and Murshidabad on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, several BLOs across Bengal had staged a protest against what they called unreasonable deadlines and an unmanageable workload assigned for the SIR programme.

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Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reacted strongly to Ekka’s death. In a statement, she said, “Deeply shocked and saddened. Today again, we lost a Booth Level Officer in Mal, Jalpaiguri — an anganwadi worker who took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work. 28 people have already lost their lives since SIR began.”

She further criticised the Election Commission, adding, “Such precious lives are being lost because of the unplanned, relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Commission of India… I urge the ECI to act with conscience and immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives are lost.”

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