In a tragic incident highlighting the immense pressure on officials involved in electoral roll revisions, a 61-year-old teacher serving as a Booth Level Officer (BLO) died of cardiac arrest in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district on Sunday night. This marks another fatality linked to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.
Family Blames Excessive Workload and Stress
The deceased has been identified as Vinod Kumar Sharma, who was the in-charge principal of the Upper Primary School Kanya Composite in the Bisharatganj area. According to his family, Sharma had been under severe mental stress due to the excessive workload of the SIR assignment. He was deployed as a BLO for part number 261 of the Bithri Chainpur Assembly constituency.
His son, Shivansh Sharma, stated that his father was deeply disturbed by the SIR work. In a bid to be relieved of the duty, Vinod Kumar Sharma had written a letter to the Majhgawan block education officer. In the letter, he cited his advancing age, eye problems, and an inability to perform online work on a mobile phone as reasons for seeking exemption. Sharma was due to retire in 2027.
A Disturbing Pattern of Fatalities
This incident is not isolated. Ever since the SIR exercise began, about a dozen BLOs or their assistants have lost their lives in Uttar Pradesh, with causes ranging from suicide and hemorrhage to heart attacks. Families consistently point to the intense pressure from senior officials to complete data collection and upload it to servers as a major contributing factor.
Sunday's death is the second such incident involving BLOs in Bareilly district alone. On November 26, a 47-year-old government teacher and BLO, Sarvesh Kumar Gangwar, suffered a cardiac arrest while on SIR duty at a primary school. Tragically, he had lost his wife to cancer just over two months prior, leaving behind five-year-old twins. His brother revealed that Sarvesh had applied for leave but was not granted it.
Earlier, on December 1, 51-year-old Ajay Agarwal, a spokesperson at MB Inter College and a BLO, died after returning home from SIR duty. His family alleged he had been under "intense stress" since being assigned data-feeding work on November 24 and was struggling to complete it on a basic mobile phone.
In a related incident in Pilibhit, a 50-year-old anganwadi worker, deployed as an auxiliary helper to a BLO, died of a heart attack on the morning of December 11 in Ghanshyampur village under the Bilsanda block.
Election Commission Extends Deadlines
Amidst these distressing events, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on December 11 announced an extension of the deadline for submitting enumeration forms for the SIR of electoral rolls. The extension applies to five states and one Union Territory.
The revised deadlines are as follows:
- Tamil Nadu and Gujarat: Deadline extended to December 14.
- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands: Deadline extended to December 18.
- Uttar Pradesh: Deadline extended to December 26.
The original deadline for all regions was December 11. The extensions come as officials grapple with the massive task of revising voter lists, a process that has now been linked to multiple health tragedies among the ground-level staff tasked with its execution.
