Bengal SIR: Teachers want BLO duty during school hours; parents furious
Online process delayed; teachers acting as BLOs in West Bengal seek to do survey work during school hours; parents fear impact on students' education
After returning home from his madrasa classes, which ran from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm on Tuesday (November 4), Md Kaisar Rashid had to head out again to distribute voter enumeration forms in his role as a booth-level officer (BLO).
Rashid, a teacher at the government-aided Sarfia High Madrasah in Murshidabad’s Bhagawangola, now doubles as the BLO of booth number 215 of Lalgola assembly constituency.
BLO Kaisar Rashid, in Lalgola, is seen handing over an SIR form to a voter.
His application, dated July 13 this year, to the district election officer seeking relief from BLO duties due to “personal and social responsibilities” was rejected.
“According to the commission’s deadline, I have to enumerate 1,211 voters enlisted in my booth within a month, which means completing about 40 enumerations per day. To meet this target, I will either have to compromise on my teaching duties or on the enumeration work. The board examinations are just a few months away, and we are currently in the process of preparing question papers,” Rashid told The Federal over the phone.
Teachers’ demand
As the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls began on Tuesday, a group of BLOs, many of them teachers like Rashid, have raised concerns about being overworked, affecting their outputs.
“If we perform BLO duties during teaching hours, we could be marked absent,” Rashid added.
Also read: Bengal SIR from today: What you should know before BLOs land up at your doorstep
Caught in this bind, several teachers have been demanding that their time as BLOs be considered “on duty,” so they are neither marked absent from their teaching posts nor have their salary or leave affected.
“The school where I teach is several kilometres from my home. By the time I finish teaching and return home, it gets late. My parents are unwell and need care. After that, I have to do the BLO work. Our demand is that instead of doing school duties, we should be allowed to carry out the survey work during that time,” said a BLO from Old Malda town, who wished to remain anonymous.
“I have household responsibilities. After taking care of them, how am I supposed to go out at night to do the survey work? Who will ensure my safety? That is why I want to carry out the work during school hours,” she added.
For the enumeration work, BLOs will receive an incentive of Rs 6,000, which includes Rs 1,000 for mobile phone expenses.
Parents’ concern
On the other hand, parents are concerned that teachers performing BLO duties during school hours could negatively affect their children’s education.
In one instance, concern escalated to the point that police had to intervene after parents locked the gate of a school in North 24-Parganas district to prevent teachers from leaving for BLO duties.
Also read: Inside TMC’s SIR vigilance plan: War rooms, data teams, 24/7 ‘shadow agents’
It so happened that all the three teachers at Chandigar Special Cadre FP School in Gaighata have been drafted for the BLO duties.
The school has around 150 students, and the parents were naturally concerned that the classes would come to a halt if all the three teachers went out for electoral roll revision.
“If all three teachers go out for BLO duty, who will teach the students? This is a poor area, and we cannot afford private tutors,” Manas Kumar Mondal, one of the protesting parents, said over phone.
Parents gathered at the school around 11.30 am, locked the gates, and staged a protest, according to police.
The gates were reopened only after the police and block development officer Mayukh Bandopadhyay reached the spot and assured the parents that teaching would not be disrupted.
Glitch delays online process
Barring these hiccups, the first day of the SIR process proceeded smoothly up to the time of this report being filed.
Although the Election Commission (EC) had announced that voters could also complete the enumeration process online, that feature failed to go live on Tuesday due to technical issues.
Also read: Why parties in Bengal and UP are revolting over SIR 2.0 | Capital Beat
The state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)’s office clarified that the glitch is temporary and will not affect the ongoing fieldwork.
The offline process, led by BLOs, will continue uninterrupted until December 4.
Sources at the CEO’s office said the BLOs’ demand to have enumeration work considered as on-duty is under consideration and has been conveyed to the EC.
