ECI kickstarts two-day capacity-building programme for electoral field functionaries from Bihar

New Delhi, April 23: The Election Commission of India is organising a two-day training and capacity building of Booth Level Officers (BLOS) along with other field-level functionaries at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM), New Delhi. This is the third such batch of BLOs to be trained from the poll-bound state of Bihar.

According to an official release, 229 Booth Level Officers (BLOs), 12 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and two District Election Officer (DEOs) from the State are participating in the two-day training programme. A specialised one-day training programme for the State Police Nodal Officer (SPNO) and Police Officers from Bihar also commenced today.

The training programme was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner of India Gyanesh Kumar in the presence of Election Commissioner Dr Vivek Joshi at IIIDEM, New Delhi and was followed by an interaction with the participants, an official release said.

ECI said that the training is planned to familiarise the BLOs with their roles and responsibilities as per the statutory framework and equip them to ensure error-free electoral rolls. They will also be trained in the IT applications designed to support their roles.

As per the release, this is the latest in the first phase of the ongoing physical training programmes at IIIDEM in which 555 BLOs from poll-bound states of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam and 279 Booth Level Agents (BLA)-1s of 10 recognised national and state political parties from Bihar have already been trained. "These well-trained BLOs will form a corps of Assembly Level Master Trainers (ALMTs) to strengthen the entire network of BLOs nationwide," ECI said.

The training of SPNOs and Police Officers from Bihar aims to improve coordination between election authorities and the police for enhanced electoral management, especially in the areas of law and order, vulnerability assessment, Paramilitary forces (CAPF) deployment, and model code of conduct (MCC) enforcement, poll body said.

ECI said that to date, over 3,000 participants from 141 countries, including large democracies such as Australia, the United Kingdom, the USA, Brazil, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Israel, Russia and South Africa, have benefited from training programmes from India's globally acclaimed election management practices at IIIDEM.

Reader Comments

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Rahul K.

This is a great initiative by ECI! Proper training for BLOs is crucial for smooth elections. Bihar needs this especially given past issues with electoral rolls. Hope they focus on tech literacy too 👏

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Priya M.

Interesting to see international participants too. India's election management is truly world-class! 🇮🇳

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Amit S.

While the training is good, I hope they also address the issue of political pressure on BLOs. No amount of training helps if field officers can't work independently.

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Sunita R.

My cousin is a BLO in Patna! She says these trainings make a real difference in their day-to-day work. The IT modules especially help reduce paperwork.

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Vikram J.

Good to see police officers included too. Law and order is half the battle during elections in Bihar. Hope they focus on preventing booth capturing.

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