The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) received 4,273 objections against the draft electoral roll published last month. The least number of objections came from the Aundh-Balewadi ward, while the maximum number of objections was raised from the Ramnagar-Uttamnagar-Shivane electoral ward. Notably, July 3 was the last date of filing objections.
The PMC has undertaken the exercise of finalizing the electoral roll for the forthcoming civic polls on the directions of the State Election Commission. It had published the draft electoral roll on June 23 and sought suggestions and objections of voters by July 1. The deadline was later extended to July 3. The draft voters list was published on the PMC website and displayed at ward offices and the civic election office. The citizens were urged to submit their suggestions and objections online or physically at their nearest ward office.
The civic body had stated that the registration of voters is done by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and only those registered till May 31 this year were included in the electoral roll.
“The exercise of seeking public suggestion and objection on electoral roll is to ensure that there are no complaints during polling day on missing name or change of ward. Thus, the voters were urged to verify their name and inclusion of name in electoral roll of their respective wards,” said Yashwantrao Mane, incharge of PMC election department.
He said the response from upscale areas of the city has been poor. The Aundh-Balewadi ward received one objection while the Baner-Sus-Mahalunge ward got three, Pashan-Bavdhan ward received four objections, Bopodi-Pune Vidyapeeth ward got six while Kharadi-Wagholi, Shivajinagar-Sangamwadi and Sadashi Peth-Navi Peth wards recorded seven objections each. In total, 12 wards registered objections in single digits.
On the other hand, the newly included suburban area saw the maximum number of objections raised against the electoral roll. The higest number of 324 objections came from the Ramnagar-Uttamnagar-Shivane ward followed by Sukhsagarnagar-Rajiv Gandhinagar ward with 278. The Dhayari-Amdegaon ward registered 251 objections, Katraj-Gokulnagar ward 248 and Koregaon Park-Mundhwa ward got around 232 suggestions and objections.
Former corporators Ujjwal Keskar, Suhas Kulkarni and Prashant Badhe have urged the PMC to extend the deadline for scrutnising the objections. They argued that 4,273 objections cannot be scrutinised by July 9, which is the date for publishing the final electoral roll. All the suggestions and objections have to be physically verified and it would require more time, they added.
