BLO succumbs to heart attack in Gujarat; kin claim ‘excessive work pressure’ linked to SIR

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A school teacher working as a Block Level Officer (BLO) in Gujarat’s Kheda district died of a heart attack, with his family attributing his death to "excessive work pressure" linked to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The BLO, Rameshbhai Parmar (50), a resident of Jambudi village in Kapadvanj taluka of the district, died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, his brother Narendra Parmar told reporters.

Rameshbhai Parmar, who taught at a government school in Navapura village in Kapadvanj, was recently given the duty of BLO, he said.

"After finishing his work as a BLO, he returned home around 7.30 pm on Wednesday and once again started doing paperwork after freshening up. Since there is an issue with the mobile network in his village, he came to my house to finish his work. He worked till 11.30 pm and returned to his house," according to him.

"He then went to sleep after having dinner. But when he did not wake up in the morning, we took him to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead. We believe that he suffered a heart attack due to excessive work pressure," the brother of the deceased added.

Parmar's daughter Shilpa echoed the same sentiments as she alleged that his father was "under pressure" due to BLO-related work.

District Collector Amit Prakash Yadav and District Primary Education Officer Paresh Vaghela were not available for comments despite repeated attempts to call them.