Kolkata, Oct 22 (IANS) Amid indications that the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal could be announced any day from now, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made it clear to the booth level officers (BLOs) in the state that there will be no relief from electoral duties without genuine reasons.

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that the commission has also made it clear that any BLO seeking relief from electoral duties will also have to explain to the commission the grounds on which they were seeking relief from electoral duties.

Already over 600 BLOs in West Bengal, who have sought relief from the electoral duties, have been served show-cause notices by the CEO’s office.

In the notice, the BLOs concerned have been asked to justify within 72 hours why their plea for relief from electoral duties should be granted by the commission.

The CEO’s office insiders said that in most cases, the BLOs seeking relief from electoral duties are teaching staff attached to the different state-run schools in the state.

Recently, West Bengal CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal had sent a letter to the State Education Department complaining about the reluctance among a section of teaching staff in state-run schools to accept BLO duty, despite a clear instruction from a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court.

In August this year, while ruling that there was nothing objectionable about the ECI’s decision to appoint teachers of state-run schools as the BLOs, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha observed that that the legal provisions of the country also allow the assigning of election-related duties to the teachers.

The CEO’s office had also cautioned of disciplinary action against such teachers if they do not join BLO duties after a certain period of time.

Earlier this month, the CEO’s office also cautioned the district magistrates, who are also the district election officers in West Bengal, to be careful so that para-teachers are not selected as BLOs.

The caution to the district elections officers on the possible inclusion of para-teachers as BLOs has been issued amid complaints from the opposition parties in the matter, citing specific examples.

–IANS

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