BLO found hanging from fan in Bankura, blames SIR pressure in suicide note

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal has claimed another life, sparking fresh controversy over administrative workload. Haradhan Mondal, the headmaster of Rajakata Majherpara Primary School and a Booth Level Officer (BLO) for the Ranibandh constituency, was found dead inside a school classroom on Sunday. According to his family, Haradhan had left home earlier that morning citing voter document collection but was later found hanging from a ceiling fan by his worried relatives.

A poignant suicide note recovered from the scene has directly linked his extreme step to professional stress. In the note, Haradhan wrote, "I can’t take the pressure anymore," while absolving others of responsibility for his death. His son, Soham Mondal, told local reporters that his father was mentally overwhelmed by the demands of the SIR project, pointing out a lack of proper training and a confusing digital workload where instructions changed constantly.

This incident marks the sixth such reported suicide among BLOs in West Bengal during this revision cycle, as highlighted by TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Earlier, deaths of BLOs like Rinku Tarafdar and Shanti Muni Ekka had already triggered a political firestorm, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee demanding a halt to the "unplanned and chaotic" exercise. The Ranibandh police have registered an unnatural death case and sent the body to Bankura Sammilani Medical College for a post-mortem.