Upload voters’ photos while serving hearing notices: EC to BLOs
Times of India | 3 January 2026
Kolkata: The Election Commission has asked BLOs to post "live photos" of electors on BLO App whom they served hearing notice. The new direction of the commission reached BLOs in Kolkata and other parts of the state on Saturday.
BLOs across the city served hearing notice since Dec 19, while the hearing procedure began on Dec 27. The EC officials clarified that since the serving of hearing notice is on, the new norm will be applicable for those electors who receive it from now on.
As per the new norm, the BLOs, while visiting the houses of electors to serve hearing notice, will have to take the recipients' live photos that will contain date, time and name of the place. "The option called upload live photo was added to ascertain that the BLO handed over the hearing notice to the elector at his or her house," said an EC official.
Till Friday, the BLOs only had to upload a receipt after serving notice to unmapped voters. "This morning I got a call from my supervisor telling me to upload the elector's live photo along with the receipt. I already served 20 hearing notices to unmapped voters, while the EC sent me a new list of 15 other voters who would be called for the hearing. What's the point of tweaking the norm in the middle when notices are being served to people since last month? Bombarded with new instructions and features on the app, we are getting confused about what the right procedure of work is," said a BLO in the city.
Another BLO said, "The EC could have made it a norm to upload both the receipt and the photo of electors being served hearing notice. Asking my ERO, I learnt that those who already received the notice will not need to be photographed. Today I gave out hearing notice to 7 following the new procedure."
Swapan Mandal, general secretary of Votekarmi and BLO Aikya Mancha, an outfit of BLOs, stated, "The EC continues to give new responsibilities on the BLOs. New instruction means a new feature added to the BLO App."