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Another BLO dies in UP allegedly due to SIR work pressure, fifth death in less than a week

Another booth-level officer (BLO) has lost his life allegedly due to work pressure linked to the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in UP, taking the death toll to five in less than a week. 40-year-old Kamlakant Sharma, a resident of the Brahmanpuri area in Hathras district's Sikandra Rao died on Tuesday morning after he collapsed at his residence. Sharma was serving as an assistant teacher at the Composite School, Navli Lalpur, while also handling duties as a BLO. According to family members, Sharma suddenly felt dizzy while drinking tea after coming down from the upper floor of his house and collapsed. He was rushed for treatment but died on the way. His body has been sent for a post-mortem. Sharma's son, Vinayak, said his father had been distressed for several days due to the workload related to BLO duties, reported PTI. He came downstairs around 7 am to have tea and suddenly fainted. He passed away while being taken to the hospital, he said. On November 30, a 46-year-old Dalit school teacher, Sarvesh Kumar, was found hanging in his home in Moradabad district. He was assigned the duty of a BLO on October 7. Reportedly, it was his first time working as a BLO. In his suicide note, Kumar confessed to feeling suffocated and said there was not enough time for the job he had been given. In a video that surfaced hours after his death, Kumar is seen fighting back tears as he asks for forgiveness to his family for taking the extreme step. I have not been able to sleep for 20 days. If I had time, I would have finished this work. I have four little daughters. Please forgive me. I am going far away from your world, Kumar said. On November 29, a woman BLO died of cardiac arrest in the Bijnor district. Shobharani, according to her husband, was a diabetes patient. She was posted as the BLO of booth number 97 in Mohalla Badwan, Dhampur area. On November 26, Sarvesh Kumar Gangwar, a BLO and primary teacher from Karmachari Nagar in Bareilly, collapsed inside the school while on duty. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead. Gangwar's family alleged that immense work pressure due to the ongoing SIR cost him his life, reported The Hindu. On November 25, Vipin Yadav, a resident of Gonda district who worked as an assistant teacher and BLO, was found dead. Yadav's family alleged he was under extreme work pressure during the SIR exercise and was asked to cut the names of a particular caste group. Amid widespread criticism over the rising deaths of BLOs and other issues, the Election Commission on Sunday extended the deadline for completing the SIR by a week. However, opposition parties have pointed out that the extension might not reduce the work pressure on the BLOs as one week is ot sufficient to complete the job. (With inputs from PTI) INTERVIEW | 1 extra week not enough, BLOs scramble to meet deadline