BLO dies by suicide due to work pressure in WB, CM Mamata Banerjee demands ECI to halt SIR exercise

The deceased, identified as Namita Hansda, was an Anganwadi worker and had been assigned as the BLO for Booth No. 278 in Chak Balarampur, Memari.Shanti Muni Ekka was engaged as a BLO in the rural belt, committed suicide by hanging in a tree close to her residence, according to police.Her body has been sent to the police morgue for postmortem examination. Family members of the deceased alleged that she could not bear the work pressure because of rigorous duty-related distributions and collections of enumeration forms during door-to-door visits to voters. She was suffering from depression as the SIR duty became unbearable to her, they alleged.Mamata slammed the national poll body on her X handle post this afternoon, saying, “Today, once 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. 28 people have already lost their lives since SIR began — some due to fear and uncertainty, others due to stress and overload.””Precious lives are being lost due to the unplanned, relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Commission of India. A process that earlier took three years is now being forced into two months on the eve of elections to please political masters, putting inhuman pressure on BLOs. I urge the ECI to act with conscience and immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives are lost,” she added.The state OBC minister, Buluchik Baraik, visited the bereaved family members of the deceased BLO.



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