BLO found dead in Bengal's Nadia, family claims SIR work-related stress
Kolkata (PTI): A woman working as a Booth Level Officer (BLO) in West Bengal's Nadia district was found hanging at her residence on Saturday morning, with her family members claiming that she was under considerable SIR work-related stress and died by suicide, police said.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee expressed her shock over the BLO's death and said this has become "truly alarming now".
Banerjee in a post on X said, "Profoundly shocked to know of the death of yet another BLO, a lady para-teacher, who has committed suicide at Krishnanagar today. BLO of part number 201 of AC 82 Chapra, Smt Rinku Tarafdar, has blamed ECI in her suicide note (copy is attached herewith) before committing suicide at her residence today.
"How many more lives will be lost? How many more need to die for this SIR? How many more dead bodies shall we see for this process? This has become truly alarming now!!".
The BLO, identified as 52-year-old Rinku Tarafdar, was found hanging from the ceiling of her room at her residence in the Bangaljhi area of Chapra in Krishnanagar, an officer said.
"The family is claiming that she was under immense pressure due to her SIR workload. We have recovered a note from her room. The body has been sent for postmortem. A necessary probe is underway," the officer added.
Tarafdar, a para-teacher at Vivekananda Vidyamandir, was serving as a BLO for Booth No 201 in Chapra-2 Panchayat, he said.
Police sources said a suicide note was recovered.
In the note, allegedly written by Tarafdar, the deceased "held the EC responsible for her situation".
As per the police officer, the deceased had also mentioned not supporting any political party and was an ordinary citizen.
"I want to live. My family lacks nothing. But for this modest job, they pushed me to such humiliation that I was left with no choice but to die," she alleged in the suicide note.
"I cannot bear this inhuman workload. I am a part-time teacher, and my salary is very low compared to my effort, yet they would not relieve me. I had completed 95 per cent of the offline work, but I was unable to manage the online tasks. Despite informing the BDO office and my supervisor, no action was taken. I was assigned work for Booth No 201 because no one else was available, while many others were later appointed as BLOs in other booths," it said.
State minister Ujjal Biswas visited the residence of the deceased and spoke to her family members.
The West Bengal Chief Minister had written a strongly worded letter to CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday, asking him to immediately halt the SIR exercise that she claimed was "chaotic, coercive and dangerous".
Banerjee said she was "compelled to write" because the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in the state had reached a "deeply alarming stage", alleging that the drive was being run in an "unplanned, dangerous" manner that had "crippled the system from day one".
The chief minister accused the Election Commission of thrusting the SIR upon officials and citizens "without basic preparedness", flagging "critical gaps in training", confusion over mandatory documents, and the "near-impossibility" of booth-level officers (BLOs) meeting voters "in the midst of their livelihood schedules".
Senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha rubbished Banerjee's claims regarding the death of the BLO in Krishnanagar.
He challenged the TMC leadership to demand a CBI probe into the death of the BLO to substantiate their allegations that SIR-related workload was responsible.
"This is absolutely meaningless. If the TMC leaders are brave enough, they should demand a CBI investigation into the death of the BLO. I can challenge them by saying that the suicide note is fake, just like the one we found in the Panihati case," Sinha told PTI.
He further questioned whether the BLO was under pressure from the TMC.
"Who knows whether the TMC was asking her to record the names of the deceased or fake voters, and whether the BLO, unable to cope with that pressure, ended her life," Sinha said.
On Wednesday, a booth-level officer in Jalpaiguri district was found hanging, with her family claiming that "unbearable SIR work pressure" was responsible for her death.
Meanwhile, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has sought an immediate report from senior officials of Nadia regarding the death of the BLO.
"We need to understand whether the reported reason behind her death is correct or not," one official said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rupee falls 9 paise to all-time low of 90.58 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): Rupee depreciated 9 paise to an all-time low of 90.58 against US dollar in early trade on Monday, weighed down by uncertainty over an India-US trade deal and persistent foreign fund outflows.
Forex traders said rupee is trading with a negative bias as investors are in wait and watch mode and awaiting cues from the India-US trade deal front.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.53 against the US dollar, then fell further to an all-time intraday low of 90.58 against the greenback, registering a fall of 9 paise over its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee had slipped 17 paise to close at an all-time low of 90.49 against the American currency.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.05 per cent lower at 98.35.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 0.52 per cent at USD 61.44 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex was trading 298.86 points lower at 84,968.80, while the Nifty was down 121.40 points at 25,925.55.
Foreign Institutional Investors sold equities worth Rs 1,114.22 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
"FPIs continue to be in selling mode in equity and debt while RBI has been selling dollars to fund their long positions," said Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP.
