SIR nixes holiday plans of BLO families

Kolkata: Winter holiday plans of the families of several booth level officers (BLOs) have gone awry due to the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise. The BLOs, who are mostly school teachers, rued that they planned trips out of the city during the Christmas break, and some of them also booked tickets months ago. At the last moment, they had to cancel their bookings as their SIR duty was not yet completed."The SIR has nixed the Christmas vacation plans for my family this year. Every year, we travel to a nearby tourist destination for a few days during winter. This winter, our plan was to visit Vizag, and we booked our tickets a few months ago. But we could not go because of my SIR tasks, and my child is very upset with the cancellation," said a BLO in Kolkata.
Even on Christmas Day, the BLOs remained on their toes, visiting electors' houses in search of documents and rectifying errors. Kakali Kar, a BLO, said, "My son demanded that he be taken to Park Street today as his tuitions are also not there. But I could not take him there as I devoted the whole day to checking documents of electors and correcting logical discrepancies flagged by the commission."Minakshi Majumdar, a BLO in north Kolkata, was to go on a long drive to Halisahar with her family and spend a few days of the vacation there. "Throughout the year, many people like me wait for winter to go outstation for holidaying. Though we planned to visit Halisahar and have a picnic there, we cancelled it as fieldwork for the SIR job is still on," she said.Some woman BLOs mourned that they could not visit their paternal homes in districts during the vacation due to the ongoing claims and objections period of the SIR exercise. Jayita Biswas, a BLO, said, "My father underwent eye surgery recently, but tied up with SIR work, I am unable to be with him at my Murshidabad house for some days. I thought of going to my paternal house during this vacation, but the work of rectifying logical discrepancies and hearing is underway. Until the SIR work gets over, I won't be able to see him."Many BLOs who are used to holidaying outside every Dec have not made any such plan this year owing to their SIR workload. Arup Mondal, a BLO from Tollygunge, said, "My school is closed now for Christmas, but I could not make any outstation trip with my family this year because of the SIR work. I will see if I can take leave and make a plan after the publication of the final electoral rolls in Feb."Key dates ahead for BLOsClaims & objections period | Ongoing since Dec 16. To continue till Jan 15Hearing & verification work | Ongoing since Dec 16. To continue till Feb 7Publication of final electoral rolls | Feb 14

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