BLO kills self in UP's Moradabad, alleges ‘unable to cope with burden of duty' in suicide letter

A 46-year-old booth-level officer (BLO) died by suicide in the storage room of his home in Baheri village, reportedly due to work-related stress, police said on Sunday.

Sarvesh Singh, an assistant teacher posted at a school in Bhagatpur Tanda village, had been given BLO duties on October 7 — his first time serving in that role, PTI reported.

According to police, around 4 am, Sarvesh's wife Babli found that her husband had hanged himself.

In a suicide note Sarvesh confessed to feeling suffocated and said there was not enough time for the job he had been given.

"BLO Sarvesh Singh has committed suicide and has left behind a suicide note stating that the he is unable to cope with the burden of BLO duty. His body has been sent for post-mortem," Circle Officer (Thakurdwara) Ashish Pratap Singh said.

Besides his wife, the couple's four daughters survive him.

A Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is underway in several states, including Uttar Pradesh. The behemoth exercise seems to have taken a toll on many government workers roped in to weed out inaccuracies and prepare voter lists with only genuine voters.

On Saturday, a 42-year-old BLO engaged in the SIR collapsed at his home in Rajasthan's Dholpur and died.

Anuj Garg collapsed late Saturday night while uploading voter data. His family alleged he had been working under extreme pressure, police said.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Sunday extended the entire schedule for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union territories by one week amid allegations by opposition parties that the "tight timelines" were causing problems for people and ground-level poll officials.

Election Commission (EC) officials said the schedule was tweaked to allow its booth-level officials to share details of dead, duplicate and shifted electors with booth-level agents of parties for greater transparency.

Most states conducted their last SIR of the voter list between 2002 and 2004, and they have almost finished mapping current voters based on those records.

The main objective of this exercise is to identify and remove foreign illegal migrants by verifying voters’ place of birth. The move has gained importance amid ongoing crackdowns across several states on undocumented migrants, including those from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Help is available!

Here are some free suicide and mental-health helpline numbers in India:

Tele‑MANAS (National Mental Health Helpline): 14416 / 1800-891-4416

KIRAN Helpline: 1800-599-0019

AASRA: +91-22-2754 6669

Vandrevala Foundation: 1860-266-2345 or 91529-87821 / 91529-87822

(With inputs from PTI)