BLOs in Siliguri and Howrah protested against what they called excessive EC workload, including abrupt orders and late-night directives.
Officers said they were being forced to do both manual and digital data entry, with many older BLOs struggling with the sudden tech transition.
Several BLOs, including teacher-staff, boycotted digital data-entry training, saying the pressure was unmanageable amid their regular duties.
Bengal BLOs Protest ‘Unreasonable Pressure’ From Election Commission, Boycott Digital Data Entry
Late-night calls, sudden tech mandates and double data-entry spark chaos at training centres in Siliguri and Howrah.
Summary
On Saturday, several block-level officers (BLOs) protested in Howrah and Siliguri, claiming that the Election Commission (EC) was putting them under excessive and irrational work pressure, including late-night directives and abrupt orders to enter digital data.
As numerous BLOs left an ongoing digital data-entry training session while yelling slogans, the protest at Siliguri's Dinabandhu Mancha training complex descended into chaos.
The protesters said that the poll body had "suddenly" ordered them to switch to digital data entry and receive training right away, which they felt was unmanageable at such short notice.
Many claimed that the burden was becoming unbearable due to the daily addition of new duties.
Some said the Commission was calling them "late into the night" and interfering in their personal life.
Howrah reported similar protests.
A government office on the East-West Bypass in Tikiapara was to provide data entry training to 240 BLOs from the Shibpur Assembly seat on Friday.
They complained that they were being asked to enter data twice, once manually and again digitally, in addition to handling a large volume of forms that had to be submitted to the EC within a short span.
The BLOs also alleged that several older officers were unfamiliar with technology and struggling with the transition.
Saheli Naskar, a teacher and protesting BLO, said, "We have to take classes at school and then rush to finish EC work under pressure. We cannot handle this much load. Now they are forcing us to take digital data-entry training. We will not do digital data entry under such pressure. We are boycotting this work." Another protesting teacher-BLO, Prakash Maji, said, "We are being asked to fill nearly 200 forms both manually and digitally. We cannot take this pressure. If needed, we will submit a deputation to the district magistrate." In Bengal, over 80,000 BLOs have been engaged for house-to-house visits and distribution of enumeration forms (EFs) as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
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