Gujarat BLO dies of heart attack, work pressure cited

A 50-year-old school principal and Booth Level Officer (BLO) in Gujarat, Rameshbhai Ratilal Parmar, died of a heart attack in the intervening night of November 18-19 after days of exhausting election duties and long, punishing travel. His family blames the relentless voter list workload on him for his untimely death.

- DILIP SINGH KSHATRIYA

Rameshbhai, the head of Navapura Primary School and a resident of Jambudi village, had spent the last fortnight trying to balance the duties of a principal with the relentless pace of BLO work. Each day meant nearly 94 km on his bike, followed by hours of voter-list data entry till late into the night. On Tuesday, after finishin