A Booth Level Officer (BLO) was found dead inside a primary school in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, with his family alleging that excessive Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work pressure led him to take his own life, police said on Sunday.
The deceased has been identified as Hamimul Islam (47), a teacher at Paikmari Char Krishnapur Boys Primary School. He was the BLO of a booth in Purba Alaipur village under Kharibona gram panchayat, news agency PTI said, quoting the police. The police officer reportedly added that all aspects of the case are being examined.
According to the family, the late teacher left home on Saturday morning to attend school but did not return in the afternoon. “After an extended search, his body was found hanging in a room inside the school premises on Saturday night. Our officers recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem examination. An investigation is underway,” a police officer told PTI.
The family members alleged that Hamimul was under severe stress due to the workload arising from his dual responsibilities as a teacher and a BLO, the police officer said.
According to Hamimul's elder brother, Farman-ul-Kalam, the pressure to complete SIR duties was beyond his brother's capacity to handle.
Bhagabangola Trinamool Congress MLA Riyaz Hossain Sarkar visited the family and alleged that the Election Commission was rushing the SIR process, resulting in an excessive workload on BLOs. He reportedly alleged that Hamimul Islam had been assigned extensive tasks, including mapping and unmapping work.
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