The Pune District Election Office faces the tough task of ensuring that there are no instances of double voting during the Lok Sabha polls next month when, for the first time, the district will go to polls on two days instead of one. Pune district has four Lok Sabha constituencies: Pune, Baramati, Shirur and Maval. While Pune and Baramati Lok Sabha seats will go to polls on April 23, the election in Shirur and Maval will be held on April 29. “We have the task to ensure that there will be no double voting. A list of voters, with a common name in a different Parliamentary constituency, is being prepared and extra steps will be taken to ensure that the same persons don’t vote in multiple constituencies. Citizens should remember that they can’t cast their votes twice and and doing so is a crime,” said Naval Kishore Ram, district collector and returning officer of Pune Lok Sabha seat. Follow more election news here. Pune district has a total of 74,98,221 voters, though the final voters’ list is still being updated. On polling day, election staff will also keep a track of absent voters and the data would be used to verify the whereabouts of the voters while revising the electoral roll in the future. The district collector further said that the Pune Lok Sabha seat has 118 ‘critical’ polling booths that would be under electronic surveillance round the clock on polling day to prevent any untoward incidents. He said the use of technology to keep a check on the polling booths will help ensure that there is no wrongdoing on polling day. The election staff have been directed to take extra steps for verifying the identity of voters without EIC cards or photos in the electoral roll. Further, steps are being taken to protect the Electronic Voting Machines and other equipment while they are taken to the polling booths and back to the counting centre. “The vehicles that transport the EVM and other equipments will have GPS so that their movements can be tracked,” said Ram.
