Mumbai: Even after severe floods in the Kolhapur, Sangli districts, there will not be any postponement of the election in these districts. The district machinery is fully ready to conduct election, said State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Baldev Singh on Wednesday.
“The district machinery has done all preparations and now they are ready to conduct election despite the flood. We are distributing electoral photo-identity card to all voters who have lost these cards during flood.
These cards are being given free of cost,” he said addressing his first press conference after assuming the charge of Chief Electoral Officer. He also made it clear that even though they have published voters' list, the eligible voters can still register as voter till 10 days before the last date of nomination for Assembly election. “Voters can visit www.nvsp.in and register their names as voter,” he said.
Asserting that EVMs are "tamper-free", Singh said the Election Commission (EC) will launch an awareness campaign against the "misinformation" about these machines. The First Level Checks (FLCs) of EVMs are completed and the training of returning officers, district-level officials is in progress, he said.
"EVMs are tamper-free with the highest security protocol. We are launching an awareness campaign that misinformation about EVMs is not true," he said.
Increase in voters by 8 Lakh
The number of voters in Maharashtra has gone up by over 8 lakh since the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.
After the revision of electoral rolls, the total number of voters in the state as on August 31 is 8,94,46,211, he said. The increase in the number of voters was 10,75,528, but the names of 2,16,278 voters were struck off the voters' list.
This means the net increase in the voters' list is 8,59,250," he said. There are 2593 transgender voters in the list. "There is an increase of around 16 per cent in the age group of 18 to 19 years," he said.
Of the total 8.94 crore voters, 4,67,37,841 are men and 4,27,05,777 are women. The male-female ratio as per the electoral rolls is 914:1000, while as per the population census the ratio is 925:1000. He also appealed women voters to register in the voters list.
"There is a gap and we are working to improve it," he said. Singh added that the voters have a chance to register themselves in the electoral rolls up to 10 days before the nomination process begins.
