Even though the final word on civic election remains in limbo, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) officials are still undecided on what to do about duplicate voters, whose number is estimated at 45,000. The voter list forwarded by State Election Commission to the civic body contain the names of voters that are reflected in double, it could be owing to shifting of places. Shyam Kapse, Assistant Commissioner, NMC, who is overlooking the election cell of NMC stated that the procedure for verifying the duplicate voters is yet to be decided. “The procedure to verify the duplicate voters can be verified as per the electoral booths, which are yet to be decided,” informed Kapse while speaking to The Hitavada.

 

Due to rise in number of voters, the civic officials are trying to find additional voting booths which is taking time. “There is a possibility of existence of two voters of the same name, and they need to be verified personally. The verification will be conducted as per the SEC guidelines,” added Kapse. He expressed the belief that the verification will start soon and all the verification will be done as per the dates declared by the SEC. Earlier, 45,000 voters holding two or three voter cards were flagged in the draft voter list last week.

 

The voters with two voter cards were marked with double stars and those with three voter cards were marked with three stars in the draft voter list. The NMC officials had informed that the duplicate voters will be verified by approaching personally, but the process is yet to be decided. Elaborating on the delay, Nirbhay Jain, Deputy Commissioner, NMC, informed that the physical verification will be performed after a tallying of the voter list by NMC officials.

 

“The flagged voters are probable duplicate voters. Their records will be cross checked with reference to their age, address, and other details. If a voter is found to be registered at two or more different places, he will be contacted personally to verify his preferred place of voting and then cancel the other entry from the draft voter list,” stated Jain. He also informed that the probable duplicate voters were flagged by the SEC itself and the data was provided to NMC for verification. Though the name of voters figuring in two places was identified, it is not yet clear whether they had voted at two places. The voter list for civic elections is the one that was updated during the recently concluded Assembly elections. 

 

 

The NMC has received 11 objections against the ward reservations, informed Shyam Kapse. The reservation draw was conducted on November 11 and the draft reservation was published on November 17. The last date for objections and suggestions to draft reservation was till November 25. The objections on the draft reservation vary in nature. Mostly, the objections were raised for wards with reservation for categories with minimal population of the category in the ward. Some objections are regarding the differential treatment given to different categories while deciding the number of seats while as per proportion. A few objections state that while some categories like Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are rounded to higher number of seat, Other Backward Class (OBC) seats were rounded to lower number, decreasing their total numbers. The objections are also raised against the overall reservation percentage going above 50 per cent, in case of OBC. All the objections will be considered by the authorities and final reservation draft will be published at a later date. The reservation for various categories were as per the instructions laid out by SEC.