BAREILLY, Dec 15: A 58-year-old booth-level officer (BLO) died here allegedly after a heart attack he suffered due to SIR-related work pressure, according to his family.
The administration, however, termed the death of Vinod Kumar Sharma, the headmaster of the Upper Primary Girls Composite School in the Bisharatganj area, as natural.
Sharma had been co-opted to work on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, a behemoth exercise underway in the state to weed out fake voters and identify genuine ones.
According to a family member, Sharma fell ill late Sunday night after dinner and died shortly after due to a heart attack. He was cremated on Monday.
His son, Shivansh Sharma, said his father was under immense stress due to SIR duties and had written to the block education officer seeking exemption, citing age, eye-related problems, and difficulty in handling online work. He was due to retire in 2027.Sharma was serving as a BLO for Part No. 261 of the Bithri Chainpur Assembly Constituency.
District Basic Education Officer Dr Vinita said Sharma’s SIR work had concluded on December 8, and his death was stated to have occurred due to natural causes since no post-mortem was conducted at the request of his family.
The deputy district election officer has been informed about the death, she said. Another BLO, a teacher, Sarvesh Kumar Gangwar, died of a heart attack during SIR duty. (PTI)
