The State Election Commission (SEC) will use new electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the upcoming civic and local body elections in Maharashtra. It has asked the Urban Development Department (UDD) and Rural Development Department (RDD) to allocate Rs100 crore each for the polls. The UDD oversees municipal corporations, while the RDD controls local bodies such as zilla parishads, panchayat samitis, and village panchayats.
The UDD, in its directives given on Wednesday, has asked the directorate of municipal administration (DMA) to release Rs50 crore air-marked as the subsidiary grants for the municipal bodies to undertake local development works. Earlier, the UDD allocated Rs50 crore to the SEC from the funds collected as cess on property registrations and stamp duty payments. A part of the cess amount is paid to municipal corporations where big-ticket infrastructure projects such as Metro rail are underway.
The SEC, in its letters to both the UDD and the RDD, had said that it will have to procure 1 lakh new EVMs for the elections, for which Rs200 crore will be needed. Both departments were asked to share the amount equally, considering over one lakh polling booths for the civic and the local body elections.
In another move, the RDD has allocated Rs10 crore to the district collectors of 32 districts where the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections will be held. This amount is used for the administrative expenses of conducting the elections.
The SEC will conduct elections to 32 zilla parishads, 336 panchayat samitis, 29 municipal corporations, 248 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats by the end of January next year – a deadline set by the Supreme Court.
