Pune: The ongoing hearing on over 58,000 objections and suggestions raised on the electoral rolls of 14 municipal councils from Pune district is expected to conclude by Oct 31. Most complaints pertain to the repetition of names or the listing of names in other wards. The district administration has so far completed hearings on more than 80% of the objections. The maximum complaints, around 18,000, were raised by electors from proposed Phursungi-Uruli Devachi municipal council areas. Authorities stated that teams have been conducting on-the-spot scrutiny to address these objections.The district administration will publish a final draft of the voters’ list after the conclusion of the hearing. A similar exercise of dividing electoral rolls as per ward boundaries is underway in PMC limits. The initial draft of the ward-wise electoral rolls is expected to be released on Nov 6.Leaders from the city units of NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) have raised concerns over the objections raised on the electoral rolls of municipal councils. They said that PMC must take serious note of the significant number of objections raised and avoid lapses while preparing ward-wise electoral rolls.An NCP (SP) functionary said, “Over 18,000 objections have been raised against the voters’ list in Phursungi and Uruli Devachi. Many have complained of missing names or the listing of their names in neighbouring wards. Some cases of repetition of names have also been raised. This is a clear indication that the electoral rolls are not error-free. The voters’ list has not been divided properly. We do not want the PMC administration to produce voters’ list with lapses.“The voters’ list in Pune will be divided into 41 wards. The civic administration has formed dedicated teams to divide the voters’ list as per the boundaries of each ward.
