BMC well prepared for Jan 15 Mumbai polls, says Gagrani

Mumbai, Jan 12 (PTI) Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner and district election officer Bhushan Gagrani on Monday said the civic body is "well prepared" for the upcoming polls scheduled for January 15.

Gagrani said the polls will be held across 227 civic wards, with 1,700 candidates in the fray, including 878 females and 822 males. As many as 1,03,44,315 eligible voters, comprising 55,15,707 males, 48,26,509 females and 1,099 others, can exercise their right to vote, he added.

Polling will take place in 227 wards, of which 15 are reserved for Scheduled Castes, two for Scheduled Tribes, 61 for Other Backward Classes and 149 for women.

To facilitate smooth polling, the civic administration has set up 10,231 polling stations at 2,278 polling booths, almost equal to the last Maharashtra Assembly election, across Mumbai.

A total of 64,375 polling staff have been deployed along with 4,500 volunteers to assist voters at polling stations. Over 22,000 police personnel will be deployed to oversee the law and order situation.

For voting, more than 20,000 electronic voting machine (EVM) control units and over 25,000 ballot units have been arranged, besides 140 backup units of Printable Auxiliary Display Units (PADU).

"Voter slips will be delivered to your homes. As in every election, they are being distributed in advance. Around 50 per cent of voters have already received them, and by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow morning, everyone will have their voter slips," he said.

As per civic officials, slips containing details about voters' names and polling stations had been distributed to over 69.74 lakh voters till January 12 evening.

"The civic body has completed the preparations for this civic election and we are well prepared," Gagrani said, appealing to citizens to exercise their voting right.

Replying to a query on carrying mobile phones to voting centres, the BMC chief said there are no specific instructions from the State Election Commission.

"While phones are not banned, voters are being discouraged from carrying them. Citizens are advised not to take phones, but if they do carry them, they must be kept switched off," he said.

Gagrani also said that a holiday has been declared on polling day.

As per the civic body, Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs), Flying Squads (FSTs) and expenditure monitoring cells deployed across all 227 wards have seized unaccounted cash worth Rs 3,10,17,020 from various parts of the city, as well as 1,237 litres of liquor worth Rs 8,03,330 and 55 kg of narcotics valued at nearly Rs 44,95,07,237.

Illegal weapons were also seized, including 36 firearms, 115 sharp weapons and 52 rounds of ammunition.

Replying to a question on seeking votes in the name of religion or caste or using objectionable words, Gagrani said no such issue had come up that needed action against political parties.

"As per information and instructions we have, all digital media campaigning must be approved by election authorities. We reviewed all such digital scripts received by us, examined them carefully and held discussions with the concerned political parties. The changes we suggested were accepted by them, and the requested words were modified accordingly," Gagrani said.

The BMC received more than 10,800 objections and suggestions after publishing the draft voters' list, of which over 10,300 have already been addressed.

As per civic officials, there are 1.68 lakh double voters in the list received from the State Election Commission.

Of these, 48,000 have already filled Annexure A forms, while the remaining double voters can exercise their voting right by showing two identity proofs and filling Annexure B forms at the polling station, they added.

A total of 12 identity proofs, such as Aadhaar card, driving licence and election card, will be accepted at the time of voting, officials said. PTI KK BNM