District admin’s focus on reducing urban apathy towards voting in Pune: Suhas Diwase

PUNE: Pune district election officer Suhas Diwase on Tuesday said that the district administration is laying special focus on reducing urban apathy towards voting in Pune wherein it has permitted setting up a good number of polling booths inside cooperative housing societies while stressing on enrolment of a large number of youths as voters on electoral rolls.

“During the last Lok Sabha elections, the district performed well due to strong voter registration and voting percentages. It is due to effective voter awareness efforts carried out by the administration, which led to a rise in voting percentages in urban constituencies during the Lok Sabha elections. We have continued these initiatives in the run up to the assembly polls,” Diwase said. The total number of voters in the district has risen to 8,757,426. Besides, Pune district has become the district with the highest number of voters in Maharashtra, Diwase added.

The state will go to polls on November 20 in a single phase, while counting of votes will take place on November 23.

The district administration has also issued directions to the district deputy registrar of cooperative societies, along with all deputy registrars of city cooperative societies and their subordinate officers to coordinate with housing societies to enable convenient and easy voting for the residents. The district collector who is also the district election officer said that after the filing of nominations, voter registration can be completed within 10 days.

“Housing societies’ office-bearers including committee members should inform their members, and take efforts to fill out application forms ensuring that no eligible citizens, including newly shifted tenants and newly married women, are deprived of voter registration,” Diwase said.

Recalling the innovative campaign undertaken for senior citizens over 80 years of age to vote during the Lok Sabha elections, Dr Diwase said, “The campaign has yielded good results and housing societies must step forward in providing information to elderly persons wherein wheel chairs will be arranged for them.”