Kolkata: A 47-year-old booth-level officer (BLO) was found hanging inside a primary school in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, with his family alleging that excessive Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work pressure led him to take his own life, police said on Sunday.
The death of Hamimul Islam, on Saturday, January 10, came three days after another BLO died in the state, allegedly due to the workload in connection with the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls, taking the total number of deceased booth-level officers to eight since the rollout of the process on November 4.
Islam was a primary school teacher at Paikmari Char Krishnapur Boys Primary School and a BLO assigned to a booth in Purba Alaipur village under Kharibona gram panchayat, an officer of Ranitala police station said.
The incident came to the notice of locals late Saturday night in the Paikmari Char area under Ranitala police station, he said.
The deceased’s family members alleged that Hamimul left home on Saturday morning to attend school but did not return in the afternoon.
“After an extended search, his body was found hanging from a room inside the school premises on Saturday night. Our officers recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem examination. An investigation is underway,” the officer said.
The family members alleged that Hamimul was under severe stress due to the workload arising from his dual responsibilities as a teacher and a BLO, the police officer said, adding that the family claimed that pressure to complete SIR-related tasks had intensified in recent weeks.
Islam’s elder brother, Farman-ul-Kalam alleged that the pressure to complete SIR duties was beyond his brother’s capacity to handle.
Bhagabangola Trinamool Congress MLA Riyaz Hossain Sarkar visited the family and alleged that the Election Commission was rushing the SIR process, resulting in excessive workload on BLOs.
He claimed that Islam had been assigned extensive tasks, including mapping and unmapping work.
The police officer said that all aspects of the case are being examined.
Incidentally, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday again wrote to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and expressed concerns over the deaths of common citizens and BLOs in connection with the electoral roll revision.
