Maharashtra Assembly Election 2019 – Empowering the Voter

With the Maharashtra Assembly Elections scheduled to be held on 21st October 2019, and knowing that Elections bring with them a host of issues and questions, V Citizens Action Network (VCAN), in their capacity as a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) partner of the Election Commission of India through the CEO Maharashtra office, organised a much-required Social Sanchar at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, on 24th September, 2019.

The programme was a rare opportunity for the Citizens of Greater Mumbai to have a direct interaction with both of Mumbai’s District Collectors, Shri. Shivaji Jondhale, ​IAS, Collector & District Election Officer (DEO), Mumbai City District and Shri. Milind Borikar, IAS, Collector & District Election Officer (DEO), Mumbai Suburban District, who agreed to come together and answer all queries related to Greater Mumbai for the forthcoming Maharashtra Assembly Elections.

The Social Sanchar commenced with Smt. Indrani Malkani, Chairman, VCAN, extending a warm welcome to the entire audience, inhouse as well as online. She first gave a brief introduction about VCAN and spoke about their interactive web portal which was launched in 2014. She highlighted that the Social Sanchars, leveraging the use of technology, began with the idea that one does not always have to come to the venue but can simply log in and then interact with their government through tweets, SMSs or even call through Skype.

Smt. Malkani emphasised that technology should be used for better living in every sphere and should be utilised to serve to its optimal potential. She then explained the formative structure of the programme, wherein Shri Jondhale and Shri Borikar, the two District Election Officers of the two districts, would first deliver their opening statements, and then the session would open for interaction.

Smt. Malkani acknowledged and expressed her gratitude towards VCAN’s Web Portal’s founding partner, Eureka Forbes; VCAN’s Social Sanchars venue partner, the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, as well as VCAN’s technology partner Teknowlegion and video technology partner April Broadcast; colleagues and networking partners and friends in the media, who enabled VCAN to take their work forward.

She particularly mentioned how VCAN’s biggest strength lies with their college partner Jai Hind College, who were also the collaborating College of the CEO Maharashtra, and thanked Principal Dr. Ashok Wadia and the students for their ready help and support.

Smt. Malkani requested Shri. Jondhale to administer the Pledge as given by Election Commission on 25th January before the Lok Sabha Election, now directed towards the upcoming State Assembly Election.

To read the Pledge, click here

Smt. Malkani then introduced Shri. V. Ranganathan, her fellow Trustee, who was the former Chief Secretary of the State of Maharashtra, and invited him to introduce the two Guest Speakers Shri Jondhale and Shri Borikar.

Shri. Ranganathan introduced Shri. Shivaji Jondhale, IAS, the Collector of Mumbai City District. A 2007 batch IAS Officer, he has held a number of important assignments, including being the CEO of Zilla Parishad Nagpur, and the Collector of Jalna District, before his current assignment as Collector of Mumbai City. The District Collector is also the Election officer for that district, so Shri. Jondhale heads all the electoral procedures for the constituencies under Mumbai City.

Shri. Milind Borikar, IAS, was then introduced by Shri. Ranganathan. A mechanical engineer by qualification, after his induction into the Indian Administrative Services, he has held a number of important assignments. As part of his duties as the Collector, Mumbai Suburban District, he supervises all the constituencies that come under Mumbai Suburbs.

Shri. Ranganathan further clarified that although Mumbai’s Suburbs are also a part of Greater Mumbai, for administrative and revenue purposes, they form a separate district.

Shri. V Ranganathan mentioned that there are certain people who find it quite difficult to cast their vote due to being on Election Duty, persons in the armed forces, and paramilitary forces, and people in prisons, and he was curious to know what arrangements are being made towards a fuller ballot casting.

Before requesting Shri. Jondhale to give his opening remarks, Smt. Malkani explained about the respective numbers of Assembly Constituencies of the two Districts; Mumbai City has ten Assembly Constituencies and Mumbai Suburban has twenty-six, which is a huge challenge for Shri Borikar. She assured Shri Borikar that all effort would be made to have Citizens organisations to extend their full support towards a successful Election.

Shri. Jondhale began by giving some statistics about the Mumbai City District, noting that it was one of the only Districts in the country to see a decline in population over the last decade. He mentioned that the 2014 elections saw an increase of turnout at the polls with 56% of the citizens of Mumbai City voting as compared to 43% in the previous assembly polls of 2009.

To facilitate Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), 623 polling stations have been made on the ground floor only. This adjustment has also been made to enable senior citizens. All polling stations in Maharashtra which don’t have a working lift in the building have been turned into ground-floor-only polling stations. Only 2547 people have declared themselves as PwDs where 955 of them require locomotive facilitation, and as per the order of the Election Commission, a pick-up and drop transportation has been arranged.

Pandals are also being erected for sun-protection especially as most stations are now ground-floor-only. He listed all the various arrangements that have been made towards the polls including ramps, toilets, PwD-friendly toilets, lifts, food and creche facilities at each polling station. Around 14 kinds of facilities are part of the provisions.

A C-Vigil app has been created for citizens to use to their advantage. The total preparedness of Maharashtra towards Accessible Elections seemed evident. Shri. Jondhale also said that though Mumbai is the financial capital of India, it continues to have the lowest voting population in the country.

This year’s focus is on Accessible Elections for all those individuals who are of age, regardless of disabilities and whether or not they are transgender.

Shri. Borikar went on to describe his preparedness for the Mumbai Suburban District. The number of electors has crossed 72 lakhs. He noticed that despite the lower population of women (due to male migration to Mumbai for employment), a high population of the enrolled voters are women.

He detailed the various measures have been taken to ensure that elections will be free and fair, and no fear tactics and coercion will be entertained. Ramps, drinking water, medical kits, proper signages, and washrooms are available per Election Commission guidelines. Assistance from NCC and other NGO volunteers have been enlisted.

He mentioned that they have visited almost all the polling booths to ensure that they were suitable and well provisioned for voting activities.

It emerged that PwDs, or Persons with Disabilities, are still reluctant to identify themselves although facilitative measures have been taken for voters who need special locomotive vehicles like automated wheelchairs, wheelchair accessible vehicle, lifts and other modes of pick-up and drop transportation for PwDs to be able to vote.

He ended by requesting people to come out and cast their vote, and hoped that Mumbai would raise its voting percentage to match the national average.

The aim of NGOs and other organisers is that maximum people to vote.

Smt. Malkani welcomed and introduced Smt. Farogh Mukadam, Deputy Collector and Deputy District Election Officer, Mumbai City, and invited her to share further details.

Smt. Mukadam listed out some of the challenges faced by the administration in mapping out disabled voters, and mentioned that they had organised automated wheelchairs, as well as wheelchair accessible vehicles to pick up and drop disabled voters to their homes.

She added that as the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections was the “Desh Ka Mahatyohar”, the Maharashtra Assembly Elections are going to be “Maharashtra Ka Mahatyohar”.

Before the floor was opened up for an interactive Q&A session, an audio-visual demonstration of how the EVM and VVPAT machines function was provided.

To view the audio-visual demonstration video, click here

Smt. Malkani added that for those who still have doubts over the EVMs, they could avail of the demonstration of an actual EVM-VVPAT machine which has been set up. The Election officers have also made provision for persons to check their name on the Voter List at the venue.

Shri. Jondhale mentioned that voters could check online (ceomaharashtra.gov.in) to ensure that their names appear on the registered list of voters. This is crucial because your name must be on the Voter List in order for you to vote, and this is non-negotiable.

Smt. Malkani further mentioned that in order to assist the CEO Maharashtra and to facilitate easy access to the appropriate pages of the ECI and CEO Maharashtra, a dedicated page titled “Election 2019” on VCAN’s web portal (www.togethervcan.in), has been made available.

She urged that this dedicated page may be used for all Election related queries.

A lively and vibrant session of discussion and debate followed, touching upon multiple issues of relevance to the voters.

To a question on the issue of Absent, Dead, and Shifted voters, Shri. Jondhale said that unless they or their family members filled in the appropriate form, it would be difficult for the Election Commission to take action. He also acknowledged the role of Co-operative Housing Societies in assisting on this issue. Shri. Borikar added that the high number of voters residing in slums also raised problems to address.

In response to a question on registering to vote online, Smt. Mukadam mentioned that it was still required to visit the Election Office of the particular Assembly Constituency, or have their residence visited by a Booth Level Officer, in order to get their signature and verify their documents.

To a query on the reliability and integrity of EVMs, Shri. Borikar strongly disagreed and listed out some of the precautions and measures in place to avoid electoral malpractices. He said that whatever incidents of misplaced polling machines constituted a negligible portion of the total voting machines. Shri. Jondhale also mentioned that despite the open challenge issued by the Election Commission of India to hack EVMs, nobody was successful. Smt. Mukadam also stated that there was not a single issue of mismatch of EVMs and VVPATs vote counting, during the Lok Sabha Election in Maharashtra.

Smt. Mukadam responded to a question on registering of the floating population by mentioning that there are provisions for registering even beggars and pavement dwellers through verification by Election Staff and Police.

Dr Ashok Wadia, Principal of Jai Hind College, congratulated the ECI for the progress they have made, and noted that when a malfunction of an EVM occurred at his college which was a voting centre, it was immediately addressed. He requested that proper facilities be provided to presiding officers and female election staff, many of whom are teachers. Both the Collectors assured him that proper facilities would be provided.

Shri. Nilesh Singit, a PwD and the State PwD Icon, and who works closely with the ECI, suggested despite the enthusiasm of volunteers, some training on how to handle PwDs with different types of disabilities should be provided.

To a query on whether the ECI could cooperate with the Municipal Authorities to remove dead voters from the voter lists, the Collectors said that they currently do not have the technology, but that is something that they looked to doing in the future. Shri. Jondhale said that they did something similar for the Malabar Hill Assembly Constituency and removed approximately ten thousand dead voters.

An audience member then congratulated the ECI on the security and efficiency of the election process and emphasised that it was the duty of the citizens to check their names on the voter lists and not the other way around. He then asked what is the progress of issuing of Photo ID Voter cards (EPIC) to voters, to which Shri. Borikar and Shri. Jondhale replied that more than 95% of the voters in the two Districts of Mumbai had been issued such EPICs.

To a question on availability of Postal Ballots for those on election duty, Smt. Mukadam outlined the procedure for doing so.

Smt. Malkani concluded the programme by calling the other Trustees of VCAN present; Shri. Rajan Jayakar, Capt. Sohrab Kapadia and Capt. Ashok Malkani to join her and the Guest Speakers. She invited Capt. Malkani to present a memento to Shri Shivaji Jondhale and thereafter invited Shri. Rajan Jayakar to present a memento to Shri Milind Borikar.

In the absence of the President of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club (RBYC), Capt. Sohrab Kapadia, who is also a Trustee of the RBYC, then presented a memento to each of the Guest Speakers, on behalf of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club.

An official photograph was then taken with the Trustees of VCAN, Shri Nilesh Singit the State PwD Icon, and Principal of Jai Hind College Dr. Ashok Wadia, with the two Guest Speakers Shri Shivaji Jondhale and Shri Milind Borikar and Smt. Farogh Mukadam Dy. District Election Officer, Mumbai City.

The programme ended with a special photograph with the Campus Ambassadors of Jai Hind College.

Thereafter all were invited for some light refreshments.

To view the photos of the event, click here

To view the video of the event, click here

To view the alternate documents which can be used as ID for voting, click here

To view the documents needed as proof of age and proof of residence, to register as a new voter, click here

To view the press coverage by the Times of India, click here

To view the press coverage by The Hindu, click here