Assembly elections: All set for polling today
| Date :21-Oct-2019 |
The Electronic Voting Machines being lined up at Ishwar Deshmukh College of Physical Education for distribution. Booth-level polling officers collected the election material and left for their respective polling booths on the eve of voting. (Right) A woman polling officer negotiating her way through the muddy ground at the premises. (More photos on page 3). (Pics by Satish Raut)
Staff Reporter :
Voters needing details regarding polling booth, change of booth location, name in electoral rolls may dial Helpline number 1950
After a hectic political campaigning, now the entire machinery is all geared up for polling for State Legislative Assembly elections on Monday. Polling will start at 7 am and voters can exercise their franchise till 6 pm at respective booths. The administration -- civil and police -- both are prepared with arrangements at polling booths and strong rooms. Ravindra Thakre, District Collector and District Election Officer, paid a visit to strong room locations where EVMs and VVPAT devices would be kept after the end of polling on Monday evening.
Nagpur district has 12 constituencies of State Legislative Assembly in which 41,71,420 voters will exercise their franchise to elect their representatives. These voters include 21,34,932 men, 20,36,389 women, and 99 third gender persons. There are total 4,412 polling booths in the district including 2,049 in Nagpur city and 2,363 in Nagpur rural. Webcasting will be done from 443 polling booths, and a special cell has been created for this purpose at Bachat Bhavan in District Collectorate premises. The who’s who of the city will exercise their franchise at respective polling booths. Banwarilal Purohit, Governor of Tamil Nadu, and Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister, will exercise their franchise at Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) School in Dik Dawakhana premises, Dharampeth.
Purohit will vote at 9.30 am and Fadnavis at 10 am. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and MSMEs, will vote at Town Hall of NMC in Mahal at 7.30 am. Dr Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will vote at Bhauji Daptary Shala, Mahal, at 7 am. Bhaiyyaji Joshi, Sarkaryawah of RSS, will vote at the same booth at 9 am. The administration has created one ‘Sakhi’ polling booth in each of 12 constituencies. ‘Sakhi’ polling booth will be all-women booths. Besides, there are 55 ‘critical’ polling booths in the district. The administration has made elaborate arrangements for voters and deployed adequate security at all the booths.
The administration has made available facilities including drinking water, power supply, voters’ lists in Braille script, toilets, volunteers to assist Divyang voters, etc. The rainfall on Sunday morning created some inconvenience for the polling parties at various centres for distribution of election duty kits including electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) devices. One such centre was Ishwar Deshmukh Sharirik Shikshan Mahavidyalaya, Krida Chowk. The officials on polling duty had to negotiate muddy ground. The administration had laid green carpets inside the pandals to overcome the situation caused by unexpected rainfall. Voters to carry any of these 11 documents as identity proof The voters will have to carry any of the 11 documents as identity cards, while reporting at the respective polling booth.
These 11 documents include: passport, driving license, service identity cards with photographs issued to employees by Government/public sector undertakings/public limited companies, passbooks (with photograph) issued by bank/post office, PAN card, smart card issued by Registrar General of India under National Population Register, job card issued under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, health insurance smart card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, pension document with photograph, official identity cards issued to Members of Parliament/Members of Legislative Assembly or Council, Aadhaar card.
Only possessing Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) is not sufficient but the name of the voter must be in the electoral roll (voters’ list). The photo voter slip will not be accepted for the purpose of identification at polling station, stated a communique issued by Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra. Webcasting from 443 polling booths Of a total 4,412 polling booths in the district, webcasting of the process will be done from 443 booths on Monday. Ravindra Thakre, District Collector and District Election Officer, inspected the webcasting cell in Bachat Bhavan in District Collectorate here on Sunday evening. The constituency-wise number of booths from where webcasting of polling process will be done is as follows: Katol -- 32, Saoner -- 37, Hingna -- 44, Umred -- 49, Kamptee -- 48, Ramtek -- 36, Nagpur South-West -- 37, Nagpur South -- 35, Nagpur East -- 35, Nagpur Central -- 31, Nagpur West -- 33, and Nagpur North -- 36.
Campaigning: 8 cases of Code violation registered, Rs 1.04 cr cash seized
During the period of poll campaigning, the district and police administration registered eight cases of violation of Model Code of Conduct for State Legislative Assembly elections in the district. Besides, it seized cash and material collectively worth Rs 1,04,68,179, and liquor worth Rs 1,21,01,271 till October 19. As per the details provided by the administration, of eight cases of Code violation, four were registered in Saoner constituency and two each in Katol and Ramtek constituencies. The four cases in Saoner include two against Pawan Jagmohan Jaiswal, one each against Diwakar Narekar and Dhanraj Sarju Chormare. These complaints pertain to misuse of loudspeaker, exceeding the number of persons in rally than allowed, and pressuring and abusing for voting to party.
The two cases in Katol constituency include one each against Anil Deshmukh, senior leader and candidate of Nationalist Congress Party, and Gajanan Keshavrao Shembekar. Deshmukh was booked for organising rally without permission, while Shembekar was booked for carrying campaigning material of NCP in vehicle without permission. In Ramtek, a case each has been registered against Sanjay Satyakar for organising rally without permission, and Adv Ashish Jaiswal, Shiv Sena rebel and former MLA, for levelling allegations relating to character of a person in his speech.
Till October 19, six cases were registered in the district in which cash or precious material were seized. Two of these cases were registered in Saoner, one each in Hingna, Nagpur East, Nagpur Central, and Nagpur West constituencies. In Saoner, 32.940 kg of silver articles estimated to be worth Rs 9,60,000 were seized and handed over to Treasury. In another case in the same constituency, Rs 5 lakh cash was seized and handed over to Treasury. In Nagpur Central and Nagpur West, cash of Rs 71,80,409 and Rs 25 lakh was seized respectively. In Nagpur East, cash of Rs 2,38,300 was seized but it was verified and found to be legal and hence released to the persons concerned on October 15, stated the consolidated statement of action released by the district administration. Further, State Excise Department and static surveillance teams seized 2,14,234.555 litres of liquor worth Rs 1,21,01,271. Total 1,137 cases were registered in this regard.
In case of problem, voters may call these officials
Ravindra Thakre, District Collector and District Election Officer, has appealed to the voters to call Returning Officers (ROs) of respective constituencies if they face any problem relating to polling process. The contact details of the ROs are as follows:
Nagpur South-West -- Shekhar Ghadge (8879686222 or
0712-2560048)
Nagpur South -- Ashish Bijwal (6423123868 or 0712-2550424)
Nagpur East -- Sheetal Deshmukh (9923650333 or 0712-2542842)
Nagpur Central -- Mahesh Patil (9421571783 or 0712-2592172)
Nagpur West -- Hema Badhe (8380883732 or 0712-2542386)
Nagpur North -- Sujata Gandhe (9405142630 or 0712-2982003)
Katol -- Shrikant Umbarkar (9011278624 or 07112-222023)
Saoner -- Atul Mhetre (9403240333 or 07113-232212)
Hingna -- Indira Chaudhary (9665322281 or 07104-276134)
Umred -- Hiraman Jhirwal (9657554465 or 07116-242004)
Kamptee -- S R Madnurkar (9511660617 or 07109-295009)
Ramtek -- Jogendra Katyare (8007711711 or 07114-255124)