A Booth Level Officer (BLO) suffered a heart attack in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district today whilst allegedly being engaged in Special Intensive Revision (SIR) related work. The police said that the family found the BLO, identified as Sushanta Tikadar, lying unconscious with enumeration forms and other papers in his home on Monday afternoon.
What did Tilakdar’s family say?
According to family sources, Tikadar suffered a heart attack while working on the SIR exercise in Part No. 106 of Gopalnagar-1 Gram Panchayat in Bangaon. “Tikadar was working on updating the enumeration form at home in the afternoon when he suddenly fell ill,” his family said.
A senior officer of North 24 Parganas district police later disclosed that Tilakdar is presently undergoing treatment at the Kalyani Hospital near the district.
“His family members took him to Bangaon Sub-divisional Hospital initially. But the doctors referred him to Kalyani Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Nadia district after seeing his physical condition. He is currently undergoing treatment at the Kalyani Hospital,” the police officer said.
BLO’s daughter Shreya Tikadar told media persons that his father’s physical condition is weak. The woman claimed that her father fell ill while stressing over the SIR-related work.
What did Shreya Tilakdar say?
Recalling the incident, Shreya told media personnel that her father suddenly collapsed whilst working from home. His blood pressure had not been good since he started working on the SIR exercise she further disclosed. The entire family is worried about BLO’s health.
The incident comes within a week after two female BLOs died, allegedly by suicide due to stress and ‘SIR workload’, while another BLO suffered a cerebral attack. These string of heart attacks and deaths follow a larger political debate around the SIR exercise.
Following the completion of Bihar elections, the election commission of India (ECI) is currently conducting Phase 2 of the Special Intensive Revision across multiple states and Union Territories. Multiple parties from the opposition including INC and TMC have repeatedly registered their protest against the exercise stating that the revision is just a copy to manipulate elections in favour of the BJP.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner of India where she called the SIR process, ‘unplanned, chaotic, and dangerous for democracy’
