Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday tore into the Election Commission after a booth level officer in Jalpaiguri district was found hanging, alleging the “inhuman, unplanned” SIR workload is crushing field staff, even as the BLO’s family flagged “unbearable pressure” and the BJP blamed state officials for the tragedy.
The deceased, 48-year-old Shantimuni Orao, an anganwadi worker serving as the BLO for booth number 20/101 under Rangamati gram panchayat, was found hanging from a tree near her home in the New Glencoe tea garden area early in the morning. Her scarf was tied around her neck, police said.
Her family alleged she died by suicide after weeks of mounting stress caused by the SIR drive.
The BJP has unleashed a reign of terror by the threat to implement NRC and SIR. “No one knows whether their names will be dropped from the electoral roll. Once their names are dropped they will not get any benefit offered by the state government or the Centre,” she had said earlier.
In Assam, the names of 19 lakh people had been dropped from the electoral roll after NRC and of these 12 lakh people were Hindus. “NRC and SIR have been implemented just to scare people and drop the genuine voters to help the BJP to win the election,” she said.
