Jalpaiguri BLO suicide: Mamata slams EC over ‘inhuman pressure’ on field workers, demands SIR exercise be halted

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday slammed the Election Commission over the suicide of a tribal booth level officer at Mal, Jalpaiguri, due to alleged pressure of the ongoing special intensive revision exercise in the state.

“Deeply shocked and saddened. Today again, we lost a Booth Level Officer in Mal, Jalpaiguri — Smt Shanti Muni Ekka, a tribal lady, an anganwadi worker, who took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work,” she said in a strongly-worded post on X.

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The Bengal CM claimed that 28 people have lost their lives since the controversial SIR exercise began. She said that some of them died “due to fear and uncertainty, others due to stress and overload.”

Holding the poll panel responsible for these deaths, she alleged that precious lives are being lost because of the planned SIR exercise and relentless workload.

“A process that earlier took 3 years is now being forced into 2 months on the eve of elections to please political masters, putting inhuman pressure on BLOs,” she noted.

Banerjee urged the EC to “act with conscience” and demanded that the SIR exercise be halted immediately before more lives are lost.

Her scathing remarks came amid reports about the deaths of BLOs in several states, including West Bengal, where the SIR exercise is underway.

Earlier in Rajasthan, a BLO died of heart attack with his family alleging he was under immense pressure to complete the targets assigned under the SIR exercise.