Mumbai: An FIR was registered against eight govt staff, including teachers, for not turning up for Booth Level Officer (BLO) duty as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and violating govt orders. The case pertains to the Jogeshwari East Vidhan Sabha constituency and was lodged based on a complaint given by an election official.According to the FIR, an order was issued on July 9, selecting eight govt staff to function as BLOs. The work was to start from June 20. One BLO was allotted for each part of the voters’ list.Six of the individuals selected were teachers, one was an assistant at FilmCity, Goregaon, and the last was a storekeeper with Aarey.Despite repeated reminders and even notices being sent to some of them, they did not turn up for BLO duty till June 11. The complainant then approached the police to press charges against the eight individuals.In the recent past, FIRs were registered against 14 school teachers from educational institutions in Borivli, Dahisar and Malad for not turning up for BLO duty.A BLO is a govt or semi-govt official appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to act as the custodian of the electoral roll at the polling booth level. BLOs are usually drawn from local institutions such as schools, govt offices or other public sector organisations. Teachers, anganwadi workers, village-level workers, civic employees, and employees of the GST department, Mhada, collector’s office etc are mainly appointed as BLOs.
