Nashik To Pioneer Maharashtra’s First Facial Recognition Pilot In Legislative Council Election

Nashik: Facial recognition technology is set to be utilized due to the limitations associated with standard voter identity cards. Nashik has been selected for the state's first pilot project for the Legislative Council election from the Local Authorities' constituency, as the electorate comprises only 619 voters. The State Election Commission has granted in-principle approval for this initiative.

The project is being implemented under the leadership of Nashik District Collector Ayush Prasad. C-DAC, the authorised agency, has developed a specialised app to collect photographs and data of the voters, primarily municipal corporators from the municipal corporation and other municipal councils. Facial scans will be conducted to verify voters during the polling process on June 18. This measure aims to prevent duplicate voting.

Since the app captures multiple data points simultaneously, the District Collector (District Election Officer) will receive real-time updates on voting across various talukas.

State Chief Electoral Officer Chokkalingam has approved this pilot project in Nashik. However, as this is an experimental scheme, voters will still be permitted to cast their votes should any technical issues arise with the facial recognition system. Consequently, there is no cause for concern among the voter-corporators or candidates, clarified Deputy District Election Officer Madhumalti Sardesai.

This initiative is expected to make the election process in Nashik more transparent and secure.