Mumbai Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday said the civic administration has been preparing for the civic polls 2022 and would require between 30 to 45 days to complete the pre-poll process and be logistically ready before the actual voting schedule is finalised by the state election commission.
The BMC has started preparations, which include erecting pandals, preparing voters lists, and ensuring Covid protocols are followed on polling day. Various contractors are to be appointed for tasks related to polling day, such as pandal erection, video recording during polling, ensuring electricity supply in make-shift pandals and crowd management measures such as demarcation for queues.
Sanjeev Kumar, the additional municipal commissioner in BMC and in-charge of polls, said, “We are making preparations such as voters lists and tenders for various election-related works have already been floated, and the process is ongoing.”
The senior civic official quoted above said, “Overall, about 30 days will be required for preparation. The procedure is that the election commission will create a draft plan and consult the civic body, after which the plan will be finalised by the SEC. While voters lists are prepared, suggestions and objections are invited on the list too, so citizens can come forward and say – where applicable – if their name is missing, misspelt, address is mistaken or changed.” Ward reservation lottery will also be conducted.
Authorities said that BMC will wait for directives from the election commission and the schedule. The Supreme Court on May 4 directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission to announce the schedule for elections of multiple local bodies in the state due for polls.
The Maharashtra State Election Commission on Tuesday issued directives to 14 local bodies including Thane, Navi Mumbai, Brihanmumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan Dombivili, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Solapur, Nagpur, Amravati, Ulhasnagar, Kolhapur, and Akola, to finalise ward boundaries, along with a timetable with deadlines for the same.
As per these deadlines, civic bodies have been directed to complete the final work of redrawing ward boundaries by Wednesday, May 11, submitting these to EC by Thursday, May 12, and the final notification in a government gazette will be published by May 17.
In the first week of March, BMC submitted the draft of redrawn boundaries for 236 electoral wards (instead of 227) to the election commission, which invited suggestions objects. On Wednesday, BMC will submit the final ward boundaries to the state election commission, civic authorities said on Tuesday.
In 2017, BMC was given a cap of 1,200 voters per polling booth. However, this year, owing to Covid, BMC anticipated as few as 800 voters may be allowed per polling booth, and hence the number of booths would go up to ensure social distancing.
“However, this was during one of the peaks of the pandemic, and now the picture may or may not change. The election commission will give us directives about the same,” the officer said.