Kolkata: As CM Mamata Banerjee argued as a petitioner before the Supreme Court, challenging the ongoing SIR process, kin of those booth-level officers (BLOs) and people who lost their lives during the exercise on Wednesday expressed gratitude for raising the issue, saying they were "indebted" to her for her "fight for justice". They also spoke about the whims of SIR.
Suku Ekka, husband of Shanti Muni Ekka, a 48-year-old ICDS worker who was appointed as a BLO in Jalpaiguri's Malbazar and found hanging at her home on Nov 19, said: "I will remain indebted forever to her if we get justice." He had lodged an FIR against the Election Commission (EC). Suku alleged: "My wife was struggling to hand over the enumeration forms to estate workers, who were never at home during the day. She had to work late at night, and her inability to speak and write Bengali made the process extremely difficult. Her repeated pleas to be relieved as a BLO were turned down."
Mala Mondal, widow of 53-year-old BLO Haradhan Mondal, a headmaster at a primary school in Ranibandh, said: "I was watching TV to see Didi's fight for the common citizens of Bengal. Her fight would help us in the future to fight our individual battles. The hasty SIR exercise prompted my husband to take the drastic step. He was under tremendous work pressure." Haradhan was found hanging in a room in his school on Dec 28. His suicide note read: "I cannot take this pressure anymore, farewell."
Sk Kamal Hossain, son of 75-year-old Jamat Ali, who passed away at his Howrah home hours after receiving the hearing notice on Dec 29, expressed gratitude to the CM for raising the issues. "I listened to Didi's arguments at the apex court and was moved to tears. I am hopeful that we will receive justice for my father's tragic death. My father's documents were in order, but his name was missing from the draft voters' list, causing undue stress to him. Due to the harassment by the Election Commission, my father suffered a cardiac arrest and died. I filed an FIR against CEC Gyanesh Kumar and other officials," he said.
Kanai Majhi, the only son of 82-year-old Durjan Majhi, who jumped on the railway tracks around 5 hours before he was to appear in an SIR hearing at Purulia's Para BDO office, was in Delhi while Banerjee argued in the apex court. Speaking about the whims of the SIR exercise, Kanai, a day labourer, said: "My father submitted the SIR enumeration form, but his name was not on the draft voter list. His name was on the 2002 voter list, though. We can't figure out why he was called for a hearing. He was anxious since getting the hearing notice on Dec 25 and feared losing his citizenship rights." He lodged an FIR against unknown officials of the EC.
Rinku Tarafdar, a 51-year-old para teacher appointed as the BLO, died by suicide on Nov 22 at her Krishnagore home, leaving behind a two-page handwritten suicide note in Bengali in which she held the EC responsible for her death. "The Election Commission is responsible for my ill fate. I do not support any political party. I am a very ordinary person. But I cannot handle this inhuman work pressure," she wrote. She added that she "wanted to live" but feared that she would be "unable to handle" the "administrative fallout" of not completing her work because "she does not understand anything online." Her son-in-law Manajit Saha said, "I came to know about the chief minister's Delhi move from TV news. We did not know that some families of the victims were taken to Delhi. We lost our mother due to this ongoing SIR exercise."
(Inputs from Falguni Banerjee, Tanuja Singh Deo, Pinak Priya Bhattacharya, Ashis Poddar and