EC doubles pay for BLOs involved in roll revision

NEW DELHI: A day after asking its poll personnel in the field to ignore repeated threats and allegations by some opposition netas and continue working impartially, the Election Commission decided to reward the officers involved in electoral roll revision, reports Bharti Jain.For booth-level officers (BLOs), annual remuneration and incentive for roll revision stands doubled to Rs 12,000 and Rs 2,000 respectively. These rates were last revised in 2015. BLOs will also get Rs 6,000 as special incentive for special intensive revision (SIR).The BLO supervisor will receive an annual remuneration of Rs 18,000 as against Rs 12,000, in force since 2015. EROs and assistant EROs, who did not get any honorarium so far, will now receive an honorarium of Rs 30,000 and Rs 25,000 each.Stating that pure electoral rolls are bedrock of democracy, EC Saturday commended the electoral roll machinery comprising EROs, Asst EROs, BLO supervisors and BLOs for doing "a lot or hard work" and playing "a pivotal role in preparation of transparent rolls".