Election Commission Doubles BLO Pay, Introduces Honorariums for Officials Amid SIR Rollout

PTI, Kolkata, August 2, 2025 : The Election Commission of India has decided to double the remuneration of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and enhance the remunerations of BLO Supervisors, thus once again underscoring its determination to push through the process of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in different poll-bound states to arrive at error-free electoral rolls.

The annual remuneration of BLOs has been enhanced from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 and for BLO Supervisors from Rs 12,000 to Rs 18,000. The incentive for BLOs for revision of electoral rolls has been revised from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000, according to a PIB release.

For the first time, honorariums have been proposed for Assistant Electoral Registration Officers and Electoral Registration Officers, at Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively. The EC has also introduced a special incentive of Rs 6,000 for SIR, starting from Bihar.

The revision in remuneration has come at a time when the process of SIR in different poll-bound states has become a subject of intense political debate, with the ruling BJP welcoming it as a necessary step to weed out names of illegal immigrants from the electoral rolls and the opposition INDIA group calling it an attempt to delete the names of genuine voters.

In West Bengal in particular, the BLOs are under intense pressure, with the State administration asking them to ensure that voters are not victimized and the opposition BJP accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress of influencing the process of SIR to retain names of false voters in the electoral rolls.