With the Lok Sabha elections having already kick-started, the Maharashtra election officials, in order to ensure maximum voting, are planning to give away incentives to the housing societies that register 100 percent voter turnout.
According to Indian Express, amongst the incentives is that the state government will award cooperative societies with cash prizes of up to Rs 1 lakh. It’s just not the elections commission, the local self-help groups (SHG) in Mumbai are also planning to reward the societies from where voter turnout is high. The officials are also considering to ensure such societies get points that will qualify them for awards conferred by the state on cooperative societies involved in social work.
An official from the collector’s office said one of the measures they were planning to ensure a high voter turnout was to try and assign responsibility at the basic block level such as in housing societies. An official told the leading daily, “The Sarkar Maharashi award with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, Sarkar Bhushan with a cash prize of Rs 51,000 among other prizes, are awarded by the state annually to cooperative societies with the highest points. Societies with a high voting percentage could get points that will give them a shot at these awards.” The officials have said that the proposal is still under consideration and has not received final approval.
It is according to a 2012 directive, where housing societies secretaries and chairpersons are booth-level volunteers and are responsible for ensuring that voter lists of their respective societies are updated and that people step out to vote.
