"Can't Do This Anymore": Noida School Teacher Resigns Over SIR Work Pressure

A woman, who was appointed as a Booth Level Officer (BLO), has resigned from her position as an assistant teacher in Noida. In her resignation letter, she said it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage both teaching and responsibilities related to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) simultaneously.

Pinky Singh was posted at Geja Higher Primary School in Noida's Sector 94, and she served as a BLO at Sector 33 Rockwood School, overseeing 1,179 voters. She had already submitted 215 of these entries online.

"I am resigning from my job. I won't be able to do this work anymore. I am neither able to teach nor perform the BLO work. Please let me know to whom I can hand over the election material," said Singh in the letter addressed to an election officer. The letter has gone viral on social media.

Her resignation came after First Information Reports (FIRs) were lodged against 60 booth-level officers (BLOs) and seven supervisors for alleged negligence and non-compliance in the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.

The SIR exercise, which has been conducted in the district since November 4, will continue till December 4.

"The FIR has been lodged for negligence, indifference and disobeying instructions of senior officials during the special intensive revision programme in Constituency 62-Dadri," Ashutosh Gupta, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Sadar) and Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for the Dadri Assembly constituency (62-Dadri) told PTI.

An FIR was also filed at Dadri police station against 11 BLOs and six supervisors for alleged dereliction of duty and failure to follow instructions during the SIR exercise.

BLO is a representative of the Election Commission at the grassroots level who plays a pivotal role in the process of roll revision and collecting actual field information regarding the roll corresponding to the polling area assigned to them.

From August 2006, the Commission has decided to introduce the concept of appointing BLOs who would be accountable for ensuring the purity of the electoral roll.

It is not a permanent job or a separate post. Instead, it is an additional responsibility given to existing government employees.

Under the ongoing SIR exercises, the BLOs are mandated to perform several duties, including collecting thousands of forms, matching data with old rolls, and conducting physical verification in addition to their regular full-time jobs, often under strict deadlines.

Every officer is required to make multiple attempts to reach every voter, digitise forms, and, in some cases, use mobile apps to capture mandatory photographs of voters for verification, and some BLOs have complained of workload stress.

A controversy has also erupted over suicide and deaths linked to workload stress and some