Election Commission of India on Wednesday (April 23, 2025) began a two-day training and capacity building programme for Booth Level Officers (BLOs) from Bihar, where Assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year.
This is the third such batch of BLOs to be trained from Bihar. The group includes 229 BLOs, 12 Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) and 2 District Electoral Officers (DEO) from the State.
A specialized one-day training programme for the State Police Nodal Officer (SPNO) and Police Officers from Bihar was also held alongside, an official statement said.
The training programme was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner of India Gyanesh Kumar in the presence of Election Commissioner Dr. Vivek Joshi at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in the national capital and was followed by an interaction with the participants.
The training is planned to familiarise the BLOs with their roles and responsibilities as per statutory framework so as to ensure error-free electoral rolls. They will also be trained in the IT applications designed to support their roles, the statement said.
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.
The training of SPNOs and Police Officers from Bihar aims at improving 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, the ECI statement said.
Published – April 23, 2025 11:48 pm IST
