Sanitation workers appointed as BLOs for pre-SIR exercise in Hyderabad | India News
HYDERABAD: Several residents of Hyderabad’s old city on Tuesday approached Election Commission booth-level officers (BLOs) seeking help in identifying their names in the 2002 voter list. To their shock, instead of someone who knew the rulebook, they were approached by a sanitation worker from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, who did not know how to map voters.
The problem came to light in Barkas under Chandrayangutta constituency, when residents noticed the name and contact number of a designated BLO on the EC website and contacted them. “About 20 of us were waiting at Al-Qurmoshi Global School in Barkas, Salalah. When we spoke to him, we realized that he doesn’t even know the role of a BLO. He came to the location only when I talked about SIR mapping,” said Syed Jallaluddin Zafar, a worker who was helping residents in the mapping process.“He couldn’t read or write Telugu. He just handed over the phone and asked us to enter the details in an online form,” Zafar said. The video of the episode recorded by Zafar went viral on X.While there is no clear rule prohibiting sanitation workers from being appointed as BLOs, the guidelines state that such roles are usually assigned to government or semi-government workers, such as teachers, anganwadi workers, panchayat workers, clerks and bill collectors – individuals who must have basic literacy skills and administrative experience.A sanitation worker posted as a BLO said they have been given smartphones for SIR work. “Along with me, about 10 such personnel have been deployed for the exercise. We were asked to open the portal on the phone and hand it over to the person, who then entered his details on a form. When the name appeared, they put a tick. I attended a training session where we were promised payment,” he said.The sanitation worker said he starts work at 5 am and continues SIR duty after finishing his shift at 2 pm. “I cannot read or write in Telugu or English. We were asked to tick only when their names appeared. It has been just two days since we started this work,” he said.Chandrayangutta Electoral Registration Officer V Surender said the appointment was made due to acute shortage of staff. “Many staff have retired, and the scale of practice is large, so it is a stop-gap system. In our area, we have three sweepers working as BLOs, but we have ensured that the recruits have studied at least up to class 9 and have basic skills. …They will be replaced soon.
