Rs 6000 honorarium sanctioned by EC for BLOs and their supervisors

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday approved a one-time honorarium of Rs 6,000 for Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and BLO Supervisors involved in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across multiple states and Union Territories.In a communication issued on Tuesday, the poll panel said the additional payment had been sanctioned in view of the scale and nature of work required for the revision exercise. The amount will be paid over and above the officials’ annual remuneration.The directive has been sent to the chief electoral officers of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand, asking them to ensure compliance.The Commission had announced Phase III of the Special Intensive Revision in May, covering more than 36 crore electors across 16 states and three Union Territories. The exercise is being conducted in phases and has been aligned with the house-listing stage of the Census to make use of the existing field machinery.According to the ECI, around 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers have been deployed for door-to-door verification of electors, with support from 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents nominated by recognised political parties.The poll body has said the revision is intended to be a participatory exercise involving voters, election officials and political parties. It added that the schedule for three states/UTs located in snow-bound and high-altitude regions will be announced separately after taking into account weather conditions and the completion of the Census phase in those areas.