Booth level officers (BLOs) involved in special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala will go on strike on Monday to protest the death of BLO Aneesh George in Payyannur, service organizations said.
The strike is planned under the auspices of the Action Council of Civil Servants and State Administration Teachers and the Action Council representing teachers’ service organizations. They will also take out protest marches to the office of Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U. Kelkar and the offices of returning officers in all districts, the statement said.
The organizations said that the BLO is facing huge pressure due to the operational overlap of SIR and local body elections. They also held the Election Commission of India (EC), which runs the SIR, responsible for Mr. George’s death.
The EC drew a no-confidence motion against the organizations for ignoring repeated demand by political parties and service organizations that the SIR be postponed until after the local body elections. Faced with targets that are humanly impossible to meet, BLOs are forced to resort to extreme measures, they argued.
Replacement requested
The Secretariat’s Action Board described Mr George as a “victim of SIR”. Action Board convener MS Ershad said BLOs are facing severe physical and mental stress and election officials are pressuring them to complete the enumeration before the deadline. He claimed that BLOs are also at risk of disciplinary action. The action board demanded that the commission announce a compensation of ₹1 million to Mr. George’s family and also convene a meeting of service organizations on SIR.
The Kannur District Committee of the Kerala Association of Non-Governmental Organizations claimed that Mr. George’s death was the result of severe mental stress caused by the ongoing SIR process. The committee demanded that the SIR proceedings be stopped immediately to prevent recurrence of such incidents and resumed only after giving sufficient time.
“Work 24 hours a day”
The association said staff were under immense pressure as the voters’ list published 23 years ago was revised within a month, forcing round-the-clock work. It claimed that the behavior of some senior officials had increased tensions. Since the SIR coincided with preparations for the local body elections, the staff were forced to work in two shifts, the committee said.
The committee noted that it had earlier made several submissions to the Election Commission and the District Collector regarding the workload faced by booth-level officials. The committee described Mr George as a “martyr” to the overburdened system and called for the SIR process to be temporarily suspended until after the local elections to allow sufficient time for completion.
Published – 16 Nov 2025 19:31 IST
