EC doubles pay for BLOs involved in roll revision
NEW DELHI: A day after asking its poll personnel in the field to ignore repeated threats and allegations by some opposition netas and continue working impartially, the
Election Commission
decided to reward the officers involved in electoral roll revision, reports Bharti Jain.
For booth-level officers (BLOs), annual remuneration and incentive for roll revision stands doubled to Rs 12,000 and Rs 2,000 respectively. These rates were last revised in 2015. BLOs will also get Rs 6,000 as special incentive for special intensive revision (SIR).
The BLO supervisor will receive an annual remuneration of Rs 18,000 as against Rs 12,000, in force since 2015. EROs and assistant EROs, who did not get any honorarium so far, will now receive an honorarium of Rs 30,000 and Rs 25,000 each.
Stating that pure electoral rolls are bedrock of democracy, EC Saturday commended the electoral roll machinery comprising EROs, Asst EROs, BLO supervisors and BLOs for doing "a lot or hard work" and playing "a pivotal role in preparation of transparent rolls".
The commission said decision to raise their remuneration/incentive 'reflects EC's commitment to adequately compensate election personnel who work tirelessly at field level to maintain accurate poll rolls, assist voters and strengthen the electoral process'.
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The raised compensation comes after repeated attacks by opposition parties against the EC. On Friday, Rahul Gandhi had accused the EC of 'vote chori' (vote theft) during Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka and said he had an 'atom bomb' of evidence to back his claim.
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