Krishnanagar, Nov. 22: A lady Booth Level Officer (BLO) engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list in Nadia’s Chapra assembly segment allegedly committed suicide at her home in Krishnanagar town early on Saturday, reportedly unable to bear what she described as “inhuman” workload and the fear of punishment for failing to meet the deadline for uploading online data.
The deceased, Rinku Tarafdar, 54, a resident of Sashthitala in Krishnanagar and a para-teacher at Bangaljhi Swami Vivekanand Vidyamandir, had been assigned to polling part number 201 of the 82-Chapra assembly constituency.
Quite shockingly in her note, she wrote, “I wanted to live… but they compelled me to die due to such failure.”
The Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, has sought a report from Nadia District Magistrate and District Election Officer Aneesh Dasgupta on the circumstances leading to her death.
According to her family, Rinku had been severely distressed over her inability to manage the online component of the work. She went to bed on Friday night, and her husband Ashis joined her later. In the early hours of the morning, she went to a room on the second floor, wrote a detailed suicide note describing the workload pressure and the alleged non-cooperation of her supervisor and other officials, and hanged herself from the ceiling fan. Her husband discovered her body and, with neighbours’ help, broke open the door. She was taken to Nadia District Hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival.
State Science and Technology and Biotechnology Minister Ujjwal Biswas, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Krishnanagar South and a neighbour of the deceased, rushed to the house upon hearing the news and broke down. “The EC will become responsible for more such deaths in the coming days,” he said.
With Rinku Tarafdar’s death, three BLOs have died during the ongoing SIR exercise, two of them by suicide. On Wednesday, Santimuni Oraon, a BLO from Jalpaiguri district, also died by suicide. Another BLO, Namita Hansda from Memari in Bardhaman district, died of a cerebral attack reportedly triggered by overwhelming work pressure linked to the SIR process.
Last week, a BLO from Konnagar collapsed while on duty and was admitted to a Kolkata hospital in critical condition. On Saturday, another BLO, Kaushik Ghosh, 43, from Raghunathganj in Murshidabad, fell unconscious during duty and had to be admitted to Jangipur Subdivisional Hospital.
Family members of the deceased and ill BLOs have consistently alleged that the workload associated with the SIR drive has caused unbearable mental stress, pushing many to severe depression. Particularly the inability and lack of computer knowledge required to submit online data has become a serious concern for the BLOs and despite repeated appeals made by them for supporting hand nothing has been done by the EC. ‘After day long field work we are working late hours in the night for the online jobs. But many couldn’t do far do it for lack of computer knowledge and inadequate training , a BLO in Nadia said.
In last week a large numbers of BLOs demonstrated across the state demanding additional support for online jobs, but ignored.
Rinku Tarafder’s suicide has intensified the Trinamool Congress’s allegations against the Election Commission and bolstered Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s repeated claims of “inhumane pressure” on BLOs. On Saturday, she described the death as “truly alarming”.
Rinku’s husband, Ashis Tarafdar, who owns a fuel station in Chapra, termed the incident “a murder by the EC”. He said, “My wife was under immense pressure due to the heavy workload and became depressed because she could not manage the online work due to lack of computer knowledge. She feared administrative punishment for the delay. She repeatedly asked for help with her online tasks and even submitted a written appeal to the district administration. But the officer refused to accept the application and rebuked her for lacking computer skills..They literally killed her.”
Rinku’s sister-in-law, Sadhana Tarafdar, said she had become so depressed that she had almost stopped eating properly.
In the suicide note found on the bed of the room where she died, Rinku wrote that she was being forced to accept unbearable pressure from the EC. “The EC is responsible for my fate,” she wrote. “I don’t support any political party. I am an ordinary person. But I am not in a position to bear the inhuman pressure of work. I am a para-teacher. My salary is too meagre in comparison to the workload. Nevertheless, they did not spare me. I have completed 95% of the offline job. But I cannot do any online work. Despite repeated appeals at the BDO office and to the supervisor, no help was offered. I was further assigned the job of Part Number 201, since no BLO was posted there.”
She added, “It was my happy time, but they didn’t let me live. I tried to continue with the job, but now it appears now that it would have been better if I had leave it.” She ended with: “I wanted to live. There was no economic problem with my family, but for this meagre job, they compelled me to die due to such failure. I would not probably be able to face the administrative pressure if I failed to complete the job as BLO.”
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been urging the Election Commission to roll back the SIR exercise due to what she terms unprecedented workload and harassment, expressed deep shock, again calling the incident “truly alarming” while sharing images of the suicide note. On her X handle, she wrote, “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 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!!”
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, in a video statement, accused Chief Election Commissioner of being the “aider and abettor” of the death and questioned the need to complete the SIR in just 30 days.
On Saturday afternoon, a Trinamool delegation met CEO Manoj Agarwal and claimed that at least 34 people across the state had already died by suicide due to the SIR exercise. “At least 34 people have died by suicide so far because of the negligence of the ECI. The poll panel has to take the entire responsibility,” state minister Arup Biswas said.
Reacting to the incident, Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the death must be investigated. “This is subject to investigation. At present, even if a person dies of snakebite in West Bengal, the ECI and SIR would be held responsible. The same thing happened during demonetisation. SIR has been rolled out simultaneously in 12 states and UTs. Why are there no such deaths in other states?” he said.
CPM’s Krishnanagar area committee secretary, Sumit Chaki, who visited the bereaved family, demanded immediate alternative arrangements for the uploading of SIR data. “Many BLOs are not at all computer or mobile savvy and lack the required knowledge. They should either be exempted from online tasks or given proper assistance,” he said.