Pune: Nearly 95% of the voter verification forms required for Pune district are printed and training of booth-level officers has been completed, election officials said on Friday. The Election Commission’s door-to-door voter verification exercise under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will begin on June 30.Voters want special camps organised during the month-long exercise to make the process easier. “These camps will ensure that no eligible voter is left out,” Mini Mohit, a voter and a society committee member, said. Election officials said that camps will be conducted once the drive starts after permission from ECI.Residents welfare associations have been told to assist election officials reach out to voters, officials said. State housing federation members told TOI that they have connected with many societies in Pune to ensure that the BLOs do not face issues at the time of visits.As many as 8,417 booth-level officers (BLOs) have been directed not to remain absent during the month-long exercise and to maintain continuous contact with voters in their assigned areas. “Each BLO has been allotted between 300 and 2,200 voters as part of the district’s nearly 90 lakh voters,” deputy election officer Minal Kalaskar said. Pune district has 90.86 lakh registered electors.Nearly 1.80 crore enumeration forms are being printed for the exercise. “The forms will reach the BLOs in time before the field survey begins. Two forms will be used for every voter—one copy will be handed over to the elector and the other, after being filled, will be collected by the BLO,” Kalaskar added.Officials said BLOs have been instructed to make repeated visits wherever required to ensure maximum coverage and completion of the verification process within the stipulated timeline. Pune district has 8,417 polling stations with an equal number of BLOs, while voter mapping has been completed for nearly 49.15 lakh electors.“The BLOs will be the key officials carrying out field visits and they have been instructed to ensure timely distribution and collection of the enumeration forms,” Kalaskar added.A tentative assessment prepared by the election machinery shows that most polling stations in Pune district have fewer than 1,100 electors, with only six polling stations with more than 2,100 voters.The latest polling station-wise voter distribution shows that 4,044 of the district’s 8,417 polling stations cater to between 301 and 1,100 electors. Another 1,127 polling stations have between 1,101 and 1,200 electors, while 1,119 polling stations have between 1,201 and 1,300 electors, Kalaskar said.The data further shows that only 95 polling stations have fewer than 300 electors, while heavily burdened polling stations remain rare. The district has just six polling stations with more than 2,100 electors—two each in the 2,101-2,200, 2,201-2,300 and 2,301-2,400 voter categories.Among the district’s 21 assembly constituencies, Bhor has the highest number of polling stations at 564, followed by Chinchwad (561), Hadapsar (525), Khadakwasla (505), Bhosari (483) and Shirur (457). Vadgaon Sheri has 437 polling stations, while Purandar has 413. At the other end of the spectrum, Kasba Peth has the fewest polling stations at 268, followed by Pune Cantonment (274) and Shivajinagar (280).Kasba Peth has the fewest polling stations at 268, followed by Pune Cantonment (274) and Shivajinagar (280)
