E-Paper
Over 55K duplicate voter entries removed; photos of 92K updated in 6 mths
On January 15 this year, there were 406,589 voters in the district without photographs, with the number being reduced to 313,939 in August as per the latest figures provided by district election officials.
Pune district election officials have managed to remove more than 55,000 duplicate voter entries and updated the photographs of about 92,000 voters in the last six months. The process of updating and revising the voter list began a month after publication of the final voter list in January 2021. Pune district has a total 7,887,874 voters.
On January 15 this year, there were 406,589 voters in the district without photographs, with the number being reduced to 313,939 in August as per the latest figures provided by district election officials.
Mrinalini Sawant, deputy district election officer, said, “We undertook this huge task which had been pending for many years. In the non-election period, we keep on updating the voter list. But two waves of covid-19 have proved to be hurdles. Now again we have started revising the voters’ list. During the past few months, we conducted regular meetings and encouraged officials to update voter data.”
Updating voters’ photographs in the voters’ list will help booth officers identify genuine voters at the time of elections. District administration also undertook the task of identifying and removing demographically similar entries (DSEs), commonly known as duplicate voters. On January 15, there were 88,724 DSEs or duplicate voters, with the number being reduced by 55,889 to 32,835 in August.
Sawant said, “Some people have their names in the voters’ lists of other districts as well, which should not be the case. So by coordinating with other districts, we have identified such voters. It requires field visits to voters where they are asked at which place they would like to keep their name and accordingly, the entry is updated.”
Election officials have also approached 119 big industries and corporate houses in the Pune district to start voter awareness forums for their employees. Based on updation of voters’ lists, a draft roll will be published in November and the final number of newly-added voters will be known only at that time.
