4 days Ago By Nisha Nambiar
Pune: All 4,715 urban polling stations in the district will be equipped with webcasting facilities to rule out slow voting and ensure thorough monitoring of booths, Pune collector Suhas Diwase said on Monday. In comparison, only 50% of booths in rural areas will have webcasting facilities, he added. "A total of 6,594 out of the total 8,472 polling stations will have webcasting facilities," the collector said.
In rural areas of the district, 1878 booths will have webcasting facilities. Webcasting viewing rooms have been set up in urban assembly constituencies as well as in the district. The webcasting facilities will help monitor any kind of slow voting in urban polling constituencies, following the Election Commission of India's (ECI) directions to monitor slow voting in urban areas, especially in constituencies such as Colaba in Mumbai.
Separate initiatives have been taken to focus on urban polling booths and efforts have been made to ensure that the voting experience is hassle-free. "We are hoping that the voter turnout will be better than both the recent Lok Sabha polls and 2019 assembly polls," said the collector. He said all polling booths will have minimum assured facilities to ensure that voters have a hassle-free experience.
All changes in polling stations have been communicated through boards or voter helplines, providing details to voters to avoid any confusion. Pune district has maximum number of voters at 88.49 lakh.
The collector said that 7.22 lakh voters were added to the electoral roll in the district from January this year, and due to continuous efforts to raise voter awareness, the turnout should be better. "Voter helpline facilities and distribution of voter slips have crossed over 80%," said the collector.
"Know Your Polling Station" helpdesks have been set up at 785 housing societies. He said that 10.54 lakh EPICs have already been distributed, and 22,677 delivered by BLOs.
He further added that the district registered seizures of cash, freebies, liquor, and drugs worth Rs 40.18 crore. Diwase has issued a strict warning regarding the use of electronic devices near polling stations on voting day.
.
