Another BLO Dies Of 'Heart Attack' In Gujarat: Family & Colleagues Blame SIR Stress, Cops Deny Link

Another incident of a booth-level officer (BLO) death under tragic circumstances has been reported in Gujarat, intensifying the growing controversy surrounding the heavy workload of the ongoing Special

Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. Dineshkumar Raval (50), the principal of the Government Primary Girls’ School in Sudasana village of Satlasana taluka, Mehsana district, died in the early hours of Friday due to a heart attack.

Raval’s family and colleagues have alleged that his death occurred around 2.30 am while he was actively engaged in the mandatory online uploading process for the SIR exercise. The Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh, a teachers’ organisation, stated that Raval was compelled to work late into the night—a pattern reported by many BLOs—because the online server frequently remains non-functional during the day, forcing the crucial data entry to be done in the midnight hours.

A long-serving teacher at the Sudasana school since 2001 and a BLO for over 15 years, Raval’s colleagues testified that despite completing a significant portion of his verification work, he had been deprived of proper sleep since the SIR exercise began. His co-worker, Govindsinh Barad, confirmed that Raval woke up his family around 2.30 am complaining of chest pain, and although he was rushed to Vadnagar Civil Hospital, he was declared dead.

This fatality is the latest in a troubling series of deaths reported among BLOs in Gujarat and other states performing the SIR duty. Just days earlier, another schoolteacher, Rameshbhai Parmar in Kheda district, died of a heart attack, with his family citing “excessive work pressure”. Furthermore, Arvind Vadher, a teacher in the Gir Somnath district, allegedly died by suicide, leaving behind a note blaming the “mental stress and exhaustion” from the SIR work.

While the local police in Satlasana confirmed the cause of death as a heart attack based on the post-mortem report and denied any official complaint of work-related stress from the family, opposition parties and teachers’ unions have been vocal. They allege that the government and Election Commission are imposing an “inhuman workload” on teachers who must manage both their regular teaching duties and the time-sensitive, often complex, SIR tasks, leading to acute mental and physical distress.