Halt SIR, CM urges EC, flags human cost of rushed exercise
Times of India | 21 November 2025
Kolkata: CM Mamata Banerjee wrote to the chief election commissioner on Thursday, urging him to halt the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bengal.
The CM's plea came a day after the suicide of a booth level officer (BLO) in Jalpaiguri's Malbazar, where the family blamed it on SIR work-related stress. Several people, including two BLOs, have died by suicide or after strokes since the rollout of the process in Bengal; the kin of the deceased and Trinamool Congress have attributed 28 deaths so far to "SIR-related tension and stress".
Banerjee's letter to CEC Gyanesh Kumar mentioned that "the situation" had "reached a deeply alarming stage". "The manner in which this exercise is being forced upon officials and citizens is not only unplanned and chaotic but also dangerous. The absence of basic preparedness, adequate planning or clear communication has crippled the process," she alleged, blaming "critical gaps in training, lack of clarity on mandatory documentation and the near-impossibility of meeting voters in the midst of their livelihood schedules" had made the exercise "structurally unsound".
"The human cost of this mismanagement is now unbearable," Banerjee wrote, attributing the Jalpaiguri BLO's suicide to "crushing SIR-related pressure". The last such revision — in 2002 — required three years, Banerjee said, adding that process was "now being forcibly compressed into three months, subjecting BLOs and officials to inhuman working conditions" and pushing voters into "the shadow of fear and uncertainty".
"This is a moment that demands responsibility, humanity and decisive corrective action," CM Banerjee wrote, adding that the "unrealistic workload, impossible timelines and inadequate support with online data entry" had put the process "and its credibility at severe risk". BLOs were operating "far beyond human limits", she stressed, adding that it would be impossible to upload voter data across Bengal's 294 assembly constituencies maintaining the required accuracy by the deadline (of December 4).
Under-pressure BLOs were being pushed to submit incorrect or incomplete entries, raising the spectre of disenfranchisement of genuine voters and "eroding the integrity of the electoral roll", Banerjee alleged.
"Particularly unacceptable" was the EC's response, she said, alleging that the Bengal chief electoral officer's office was intimidating BLOs "instead of offering support, extending timelines or addressing systemic flaws". "The EC refuses to acknowledge reality," she added, also questioning the timing of the exercise that had coincided with the paddy harvest and the sowing of the rabi crop.