Maharashtra Teachers Blo Duties Sir Holiday Protest

With the door-to-door distribution of enumeration forms for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) set to begin on June 30 in Maharashtra, the State Election Commission has clarified that teachers will be assigned Booth Level Officer (BLO) duties during non-school hours and on holidays. A June 27 letter issued by Manohar Parkar, Deputy Secretary and Joint Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra, asked District Level Officials to not assign full-time BLO work to teachers.

The letter states that as per instructions of the Election Commission of India, state government or local body employees belonging to Group C or above can be appointed as BLOs. In case of non-availability of such employees, anganwadi, contractual teachers, or central government employees can be assigned as BLOs.

Accordingly, a large number of teachers, falling under state government or local bodies, have been appointed as BLOs, says the letter. It cites the Right to Education Act 2009 and judgements from the Allahabad and Rajasthan High Courts to claim appointment of teachers as BLOs is legal. Further, the letter cites a Supreme Court judgement wherein the Election Commission had stated that teachers would be appointed for electoral roll revision works during off-duty hours and holidays as far as possible.

“It has been observed that some District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have issued orders to permanently acquire the services of teachers while appointing them as BLOs and have directed the concerned establishments to release the said teachers for full-time work,” the letter says, adding that teachers should not be appointed full-time BLO duties.

Tanaji Mane, President of the Maharashtra State Secondary and Higher Secondary School Headmaster’s Association, said, “Schools have just begun. There is a shortage of teachers in schools, no new recruitment is taking place. Thus releasing teachers for full-time BLO duty effectively amounts to shutting down Marathi-medium schools.”

Reacting to the letter by the election office, Mane said, “Teachers work for eight-nine hours like other government employees. Now they are supposed to work after school? On holidays also? The question is how many employees from other fields have been selected as BLOs and how many teachers. I will ask our association to file RTI requests to get this information and after that we will file a petition in the High Court.”

Similarly Vijay Kombe, State President of Maharashtra State Primary Teacher’s Committee, said, “Teachers are being given work in non-school hours which is of course correct. But the work is so vast that they need to work in the mornings and nights. Is there no personal life for teachers? We get one Sunday as a holiday in a week and even on that holiday we have to work?

“Every teacher is assigned 1400-1500 voters. Instructions are such that form distribution and filling should be done in seven days. In rural areas the voters won’t be able to fill the forms as they are technical, the BLO has to do everything. At some district trainings, teachers are being verbally told to adjust work in contravention of the election office’s orders. At a school in Wardha district, seven out of nine employees are on SIR duty. One teacher and headmaster are the only ones in school. How is the school supposed to function?” Kombe added.