Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has time till December 22 to wrap up ongoing exercise of removing names of citizens appearing multiple times in the voters list and at Central level, nearly 35,000 names matched as per the photographs. Sharing the data during media interaction on Tuesday at NMC Headquarters, Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari said the list is now shared with 10 Zones and they in turn are reaching out to individual voters. As per the procedure, the civic body officials would reach out to voters and ask them to provide option on where they want to cast their votes. This would then ensure that the voters’ name in other place is struck out and the updated voter list will be published on December 22. The Municipal Commissioner stated that the State Election Commission (SEC) has already spelt out approach to be adopted on the voting day in the case the exercise is not completed by that time.

 

The SEC has given NMC list of names appearing multiple times and they are stamped, indicating that adequate check and balances exist to prevent double voting. This is nothing new and even in previous Assembly elections, such double names used to exist and adequate care was taken by SEC that time also. To a query, Dr Chaudhari said that about 95,000 entries were found that indicated that voters were registered at one or more places. The SEC instructions states that unilaterally, one cannot delete voters name from the list and one has to proceed as per the procedure. Many times, it happens that an official cannot reach to voter so this time during the voting, the form about deleting name from other place would be undertaken. Model Code of Conduct: To enforce Model Code of Conduct, the flying squad and static team have been formed at headquarters and in coming days, same would also be constituted at zonal level. About 18,000 personnel are going to be deployed for the smooth conduct of elections and for the same staff from other departments are sourced whose training is going to start soon. At each of the Zones, a Deputy Collector-ranked officer is going to be appointed as Returning Officer to be assisted by three Assistant Returning Officers (AROs); Tehsildar (ARO-1), Zonal Assistant Commissioner (ARO-2) and Executive Engineer (ARO-3). Each of the zone will have independent flying squad and static and fixed surveillance teams. The Zonal team would also oversee MCC implementation and violations.

 

Though the actual number of ballot units and control

units would be known only after finalisation of number of booths, Commissioner replying to a question said they have got the memory chips. At the most each booth would have 800 to 900 voters and would have three to four ballot and one control unit. So around 30,000 ballot units plus 10 per cent reserve is going to be needed for the elections and 3,000 control units. As of now, about 3,167 voting booths are finalised and by December 22 some more would be finalised. Deputy Commissioners Nirbhay Jain and Milind Meshram were also present during media interaction. 

 

Women voters hold key to power in civic body

Women voters hold the key as to outcome of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) as they outnumber their male counterparts. As per the final voter list released for the upcoming polls scheduled for January 15, male voters are 12,26,690 in number while the women totalled to 12,56,166. So the political parties are going walk extra mile to woo the women voters and herein the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) might have an edge due to Ladki Bahin Scheme in place. Of the total 38 wards, the men voters outnumber women only in seven of them, showing the dominance of women. As to number of other voters, their number is 256.

 

Poll expenditure limit raised to Rs 15 lakh

State Election Commission (SEC) has capped expenditure limit for candidates in the ensuing elections to Rs 15 lakh. This was informed by Municipal Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari. He further said, zonal level committees would keep tab on the candidate's expenditure. As to printing of symbols on voters slips, Dr Chaudhari said while NMC would dispatch the slips to voters informing them about the part and serial number in voter list and voting centre. In case it came to notice that political parties to has distributed such slips with symbol, then as per practice it cost would be added to candidate's expenditure. NMC is going to put in place one window clearance system so that candidates can get necessary permit as to putting up hoardings, banners, permission for hiring autorickshaw, putting up campaign offices etc. Police personnel from requisite department to would be available at the centre to provide necessary clearances. 

 

Reservation exceeds 50 pc cap, Dr Chaudhari confirms

Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari admitted that reservation of seats for NMC election has crossed the 50 per cent cap. The entire procedure of reserving seats and other details were carried out as per directives from State Election Commission (SEC), he said while replying to querries from newspersons. Also, it’s already known that outcome of civic elections is subject to Apex Court judgement. The Supreme Court’s double bench has posted the hearing on reservation issue on January 21. By that time the results of local body elections will be declared as SEC is already part to the petition and respective municipal corporation have no role in it. The timeline decided by SEC indicates that gazette notification about winners in the local body poll is going to be published on January 19.