E-Paper
Voter registration drive in Pune: Lack of well-trained staff and poor planning major hurdles
Residents came to polling centre at 9 am, but work started at 10am on Baner- Pashan Link Road
At least 8,970 forms were registered during the two-day voters’ registration special drive organised by the district administration on Saturday. The residents faced problems due to lack of well-trained staff, poor planning, and difficulty in filing forms among others during the drive.
The drive is organised for first-time voters to register themselves and for others for enquiry ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. While some centres in Baner, Balewadi and Pashan saw huge crowd braving the sun, some centres had a trickle of residents during the first half of the day.
Mohini Nimhan, a first-time voter was excited about getting her voter identity card. “Recently, I turned 18-years-old and I am very excited that I will be voting in the coming election.” She had come at the Baner-Pashan link road to register herself.
At the Sant Tukaram High School, on Baner-Pashan Link road, several residents came at the polling station at 9 am, but there was no one to help them. The block level officers started work only by 10 am.
Pranita Kulkarni, a primary school teacher at the Sant Tukaram primary school who is on election duty, said, “We have been told to hold the drive from 10 am to 5 pm over the weekend, I have no idea why people arrived so early? I have received 55 forms for voter registrations in two hours and we expect more residents to come in before 5 pm.”
Meanwhile, Abhinav College wore a deserted look and when questioned the staff they mentioned that none of the 8 to 10 people, who came here, belonged to this area and had to be directed to other centres.
At the Sopanrao Baburao Katke, a primary school in Baner gaon several residents came for enquiry. Jayashree Salunkhe, principal, of the school and incharge of the voter registration centre, said, “Several voters had come to check their names in the voters’ list. Many of them had their names registered twice, hence we had to explain to them how to cancel it.”
Meanwhile, Hinjewadi residents were disappointed as the Hinjewadi zilla parishad school was not open. “We went to the school, but there the drive was not conducted as teachers were not available,” said Ashok Gosavi, a resident of Hinjewadi.
