EC to set up 117 polling booths at residential societies 

Pune: In a step towards reducing urban voter apathy towards polling, the state election commission has given permission to 55 co-operative housing societies where 117 polling booths will be set up for the forthcoming assembly elections in Pune District. The election commission took the decision to boost the voting percentage in all the assembly segments in the city with the Hadapsar assembly constituency having a maximum of 33 polling booths, officials from the state election office said on Monday. 

Earlier, voting had been taking place in schools, gram panchayats and other government offices. 

During the last Lok Sabha polls, the election commission had allowed conducting polling inside residential co-operative housing societies wherein polling was undertaken inside 36 big residential societies. 

The election commission has observed that in metropolitan cities like Pune and the district, huge residential societies housing thousands of individuals who are busy with their 9 to 5 schedule find it difficult to vote. At the same time, most of the urban voters residing in societies have been found to be disinterested and hence the initiative has been undertaken in the larger interest of urban voters. According to the ECI guidelines, societies or groups of societies with over 800 voters can apply for the dedicated booth.  

Pune election officer Minal Kalaskar said, “Polling booths inside residential societies have received good response from citizens and according to the ECI guidelines, the necessary steps have been undertaken to provide the facility to the citizens.” 

The ECI in its letter to the Maharashtra chief electoral officer (CEO) stated that the polling booths in societies reported substantial turnout in Lok Sabha polls comparing overall percentage and thus it should be promoted further. 

The office of the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra uploaded a link to Google Forms with the appeal to the cooperative housing societies to fill them forward for the dedicated booths. The societies with around 1,200 voters in the society or nearby societies are eligible for the dedicated booth. The society premises should have a 250 square feet built-up area with basic amenities like toilets to set up such booths,” the ECI guidelines on the official website stated. After the societies filled out the form, the district-level election officials got in touch with the societies to facilitate them with booths.