Representative image with the word 'suicide'.
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Ahmedabad: A school teacher working as a Block Level Officer (BLO) for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list allegedly died by suicide in Gir Somnath district on Friday.
40 years old Arvind Vadher allegedly died by suicide at Chara village in Kodinar taluka of Gir Somnath district.
In a one-page suicide note, he blamed work pressure as the reason for taking the extreme step. "I feel that no matter what, the SIR work can't be finished and I have been feeling continuously tired and mentally stressed for the last many days," the alleged suicide note stated which was addressed to his wife.
Despite repeated attempts, the Gir Somnath district Superintendent of Police did not respond. Meanwhile, the opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have criticized the ruling government over the incident.
The Congress said that 99% of BLOs are teachers who have been assigned the complicated task of BLOs. AAP's Gujarat president Isudan Gadhvi in a statement said that teachers are under tremendous pressure because of the "BJP's haste to win elections."
He said that "BJP is pressurising to finish the SIR exercise quickly because the local body elections have been delayed and because of this pressure the teacher committed suicide while another had died of heart attack."
Earlier on Thursday, Ramesh Parmar, 50, a school teacher working as BLO in Kheda district, died of a heart attack. His family attributed his death to "excessive work pressure" due to SIR exercise.