SIR begins on shaky note as over 300 BLOs in Mumbai skip duty, seek relief from regular work

“The task at hand is difficult. Often, housing societies refuse to allow the BLOs inside. Residents are suspicious, are away for work, and ask them to return on weekends,” said a senior election official overseeing the exercise in the Vile Parle Assembly constituency.

Officials said the absentee BLOs were demanding that they be officially relieved of their routine responsibilities before taking up election work. However, election authorities said a Supreme Court order does not permit exempting teachers and government employees from BLO duties.

In the Vile Parle constituency alone, nearly 75 of around 280 BLOs did not report to collect the forms. In another Mumbai Suburban constituency, around 10 per cent of the appointed BLOs remained absent, while heavy rain affected field work for many others.

According to Subhash More, working president of the Shikshak Bharti Association, around 200 to 300 teachers appointed as BLOs across Mumbai stayed away from duty.

“The day of a teacher begins with an hour or two of travelling, followed by 8 hours of teaching and school work. Most of them are women, who tend to have responsibilities at home. How are they expected to juggle going door to door for the SIR enumeration with all of it? And in this midst, how are schools supposed to stay afloat?” More said.

He also alleged that BLOs have not been provided travel allowance, adequate safety measures or clarity on the full extent of their responsibilities despite already undergoing training and self mapping work during school holidays.

Election officials acknowledged the concerns but said they had little room to manoeuvre.

“We are empathetic to the BLOs’ demands, as it is a humungous task in front of them. And if it has to be done to high standards, their undivided energies towards the enumeration are required,” an Electoral Registration Officer said.

“Our efforts are on to speak with principals to unofficially allow relaxations in the BLO’s work. But principals have not been receptive, as they are tasked with the responsibility of running schools. Discussions are on, and hopefully a compromise will be found in the coming days,” the official added.

Officials said the self mapping exercise conducted before the launch has eased the workload to some extent. In Vile Parle, around 65 per cent of voters had completed self mapping, reducing the amount of field verification required.

Aanchal Goyal, the Mumbai City Collector, one of the senior officials overlooking the exercise in Mumbai, said she was not been notified of any BLOs not reporting for duty. “As it has been raining all day, enumeration has been affected. And while there is a demand from school teachers to be officially relieved, there is a Supreme Court order denying it. Additionally, teachers are also paid an extra honorarium for BLO duty.”