Overview
- BLOs staged demonstrations and boycotted digitisation training in Siliguri, Howrah’s Tikiapara, Barrackpore and Katwa, including walkouts at Siliguri’s Dinabandhu Mancha.
- Protesters alleged late-night instructions, a sudden shift to app-based uploads, duplicate manual and digital data entry, and targets of roughly 200 forms in a short span.
- More than 80,000 BLOs are deployed statewide, many of them teachers juggling regular duties, as the CEO’s office continues training on digitising enumeration forms.
- Representatives petitioned Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal for data-entry operators, clearer guidance, edit options and an extension, following which he held a review with Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti.
- An ECI delegation is scheduled to arrive in Kolkata on November 18 to review progress, with districts asked to finish form collection this month and Kolkata residents reporting confusion over the forms.