NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has pulled up the West Bengal government for not releasing the increased honorarium for booth level officers (BLOs) and the additional payment approved for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.In a statement, the poll body said it had informed an All India Trinamool Congress delegation during a November 28 meeting that the delay in payments was “very strange”. “We told the AITC delegation… that it is very strange that the increased honorarium of Rs 12,000 per year for BLOs and an additional Rs 6,000 to BLOs for SIRs approved by the ECI has not yet been paid by the state government. This should be done without any further delay.”In August, the poll body had doubled the annual remuneration of BLOs from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 and raised the payment for BLO supervisors from Rs 12,000 to Rs 18,000. It also approved an honorarium for electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs). The Commission said the revision was meant to acknowledge the crucial work of field teams engaged in preparing clean and transparent voter lists. “Pure electoral rolls are the bedrock of democracy. The electoral roll machinery, consisting of EROs, AEROs, BLO Supervisors and BLOs, does a lot of hard work and plays a pivotal role in the preparation of impartial and transparent electoral rolls,” a press release said. The release added, “The commission has therefore decided to double the annual remuneration for BLOs & also enhanced the remuneration of BLO Supervisors involved in the preparation and revision of electoral rolls.”The development comes amid sharp criticism from TMC, whose 10-member MPs’ delegation met chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Friday to oppose the SIR exercise being conducted in West Bengal and other states.After the meeting, party MP Derek O’Brien said the delegation handed over a list of nearly 40 people allegedly “dead because of the SIR process”. “We started the meeting by telling him that Mr Kumar and the Election Commission of India have blood on their hands,” he said.The standoff adds to the ongoing friction between the state government and the ECI over electoral roll revisions, with both sides trading charges.(with inputs from agencies)
