‘Be a Voter’ campaign to pull Mumbaikars to polling booths

An official from the BMC’s election department said each of the 227 corporator wards in the city will have three registration centres,which will be open during this period. “These centres will facilitate citizens to get a voter ID if they reside in the city. It will also help existing voters to easily make any changes in their ID cards in case of mistakes or change in address,” said the official.

As per the provisional figures of the national Census of 2011,the population of the city is about 1.26 crore. In the last civic elections,the voter turnout was merely 44 per cent. Joint Municipal Commissioner S S Shinde said through this campaign they hope to raise this percentage drastically. “We are trying to facilitate the entire process of registering oneself,getting a voter ID card and then eventually going out on the polling day to cast the vote. People will get an opportunity to get their voter card made well in advance. Any person who is residing in the city and has the necessary documents can become a voter through this campaign,” he said. The citizen has to submit a proof of residence mandatory among other documents.

These centres will either be set up in municipal premises or at public places convenient for citizens,such as close to a railway station,bus depot etc. To create awareness about the campaign,the BMC will allow self-help groups (SHGs),NGOs etc to take up the task of door-to-door campaign in addition to the EC’s advertising campaign.

A committee under the chairmanship of Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar has been constituted to scrutinise the applications by the various NGOs and SHGs. Officials from the Collector’s office will be part of this committee.