Cantonment BLOs Boycott SIR Duties Over Unpaid Salaries

The protest was held outside the Secunderabad Cantonment Board office, where workers demanded immediate release of their pending salaries, honorarium for SIR work and other outstanding payments. They said they would not resume SIR duties until their dues were cleared.

A representation submitted to the Electoral Registration Officer stated that Cantonment MLA Sriganesh Narayanan had sought the immediate release of pending honorarium and outstanding dues to BLOs, besides a special incentive in view of the additional workload during the SIR exercise.

A woman BLO, Sunitha Rajkumar, who has been working in Ward 8 since 2014, said they had not received salaries since 2023 despite being assigned election-related work, including the ongoing SIR exercise. “We have been doing mapping work since March and later door-to-door data collection, but we have not received any payment. We leave home around 6 am and continue working till late at night. Voters keep calling us because our personal mobile numbers are printed on enumeration forms. As women, receiving calls even at midnight is frightening,” she said.

Another colleague, Vemula Nagalakshmj alleged that most BLOs in wards 2 to 8 were Anganwadi workers from modest-income families who depended on their salaries to support their households. "Many of us have young children. We have to spend our own money on travel, phone bills and other expenses. One worker even lost her mobile phone during field work but received no compensation. We are only asking for our salaries and SIR payments. Once they are credited, we will continue the work,” she said.