Bombay municipal corporation offers housing societies cash prizes for maximum voters in civic polls

MUMBAI: In a bid to increase the voter count for the 2017 BMC elections, the civic body along with the State Election Commission (SEC) is in the process of approaching 40,000 odd co-operative housing societies (CHS) in the city, asking them to encourage members to register as voters. The CHS which gets the maximum number of its members to vote could win cash prizes, the amount of which is yet to be decided.
BMC elections are scheduled to be held in February 2017 and the plan is not just to get the maximum number of Mumbaikars to come out and vote, but to at least register themselves.Besides housing societies, the BMC is also approaching colleges asking them to register students who turn 18 before January 1, 2017, as voters. “We have already started sending out posters to societies asking them to get the maximum number of their members to come out and vote. The chairman and secretary of the society are expected to encourage residents to vote. College authorities are also being asked to get students, who have turned 18, to vote. We are also encouraging electoral registration offices to attract maximum number of voters. Prize money would be given to each of these who get the maximum number of voters,” said BMC additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh.
October 3 will be crucial as that is when the lottery for reservations is to be held for the 227 wards and the delimitation of wards would be officially announced. While 50% of the total 227 seats would be reserved for women candidates, there will also be parallel reservation for schedule castes/tribes and OBC category among women candidates.
Each electoral ward will have an average of 54,000 voters as the state Election Commission had asked the BMC to divide the total population of 12.44 million by the number of wards. But in 42 electoral wards, a 10% variation has been maintained in the number of voters, as natural boundaries need to be followed according to guidelines given by the State Election Commission. For example, a colony has to be contiguous and boundaries like roads, pipelines, rivers, culverts, creeks should be maintained.