Offer officers Rs 2k incentive for ‘spl drives’: EC to Bengal
Times of India | 25 July 2025
Kolkata/New Delhi: Election Commission on Thursday directed Bengal govt to increase wages of booth level officers (BLOs) and their supervisors and mentioned an incentive of Rs 2,000 for them for "special drives". The reference to the "special drive" was not elaborated.
The commission's short letter comes in the backdrop of Trinamool raising its pitch on the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar. TMC has already moved Supreme Court against the exercise.
The EC letter — seeking to revise wages that were fixed in 2015 — said BLOs should be given Rs 12,000 annual remuneration and their supervisors Rs 18,000, adding that Rs 2,000 be earmarked for BLOs for "special summary revision (SSR)/special revision (SR) or any other special drive".
TMC MP Mahua Moitra, in her SLP in SC, expressed apprehension that the SIR exercise would be replicated in Bengal from Aug 2025, "for which instructions have already been given to EROs". Bengal goes to polls in 2026.
TMC also raised the issue in Parliament. TMC's leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien posted on X: "They will run away from discussing issues like SIR and the targeting of Bengal. The govt does not want Parliament to run.
"Trinamool, in a statement on X, said: "This is not a ‘special intensive revision'. This is a special disenfranchisement drive. On July 22: 11,484 untraceable voters. On July 23: 1,00,000 untraceable voters. This is an 8X spike in just 24 hours. Until 88.1% coverage, there were 35 lakh deletions. Now, at 98% coverage: there are 56 lakh deletions. 21 lakh voters have been culled from the last 77 lakh surveyed. What magic formula is EC using?"Bengal BJP has demanded a Bihar-like SIR in Bengal to purge out "Rohingya and infiltrators".
TMC questioned this narrative and said in a statement: "Today, BJP screams about ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants' on voter rolls. Two simple questions arise: Who controls India's borders? It's the ministry of home affairs. If illegal infiltration has occurred, that is a direct admission of failure on their part. Who is the governing party today? It's the Narendra Modi-led govt. If the electoral rolls are allegedly flooded with illegals on his watch, should the PM not consider vacating his own chair?"