Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar inaugurated the first-ever training of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) along with Election Commissioner Dr Vivek Joshi at India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM), New Delhi, on Wednesday.
Over 1 lakh BLOs with an average of one BLO per 10 polling stations will be trained in such training programmes over the next few years. These well-trained BLOs will form a corps of Assembly Level Master Trainers (ALMTs) to strengthen the entire network of BLOs nationwide, who are the first and most important interface between the 100 crore electors and the Commission.
This unique capacity-building programme will continue in phases, focusing first on poll-bound states. Currently, 109 BLOs from Bihar, West Bengal and Assam are participating in this 2-day residential training programme along with 24 EROs and 13 DEOs from Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.
The training is planned to familiarise the BLOs with their roles and responsibilities as per the RP Act 1950, the Registration of Elector Rules 1960 and instructions of the Commission issued from time to time, and to equip them with requirements of filling relevant forms for an error-free updation of electoral rolls. They will be familiarised with IT applications designed to support their work.
BLOs are State Government officials and are appointed by the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) after the approval of the District Election Officers (DEOs). CEC Gyanesh Kumar, while acknowledging the critical role of EROs and BLOs in error free updation of electoral rolls, stressed that the state governments should nominate SDM level or equivalent officers as EROs, who then should appoint BLOs giving due consideration to their seniority and who are ordinary resident of the polling station under their charge.
The CEC underscored that as per Article 326 of the Constitution and Section 20 of the RP Act 1950, only citizens of India who are above 18 years of age and ordinarily resident in the constituency can be registered as electors. He recalled his directions to all CEOs, DEOs, EROs for holding all-party meetings at their respective levels and resolve issues relating to their area of jurisdiction, including correct updation of electoral rolls.
He also cautioned that any complaint against ERO or BLO will be strictly acted upon. He said that all BLOs should be courteous in their interactions with the electors during house-to-house verification for updation of electoral rolls. He said that the Commission was, is and will always continue to stand with nearly 100 crore electors.
