BMC polls 2017: Mobile app to help voters find wards, booths

You do not vote because you don’t know your ward? You don’t know the polling nearby stations? You don’t know if you are registered as a voter? Your excuses are not likely to work for the upcoming municipal elections.

For the first time, the state election commission, along with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), is creating a mobile application which voters can use before the 2017 polls. The application,True Voter, will help citizens find their electoral wards, polling booths and voter ID numbers.

While the application is available for android phone users , the civic body is in the process of integrating the data, officials said. “The application can be used by the first week of February,” said a senior civic official. The elections are likely to be held in the second week of February.

The BMC undertook the delimitation process during which boundaries of 90% of the existing 227 electoral wards were changed. In such a scenario, when citizens are unsure of their wards, the application will be of benefit, officials said.

A geographical information system (GIS) mapping individual houses surveyed by BMC will also be integrated in the application. The peripheral buildings of the boundaries have been marked which will be integrated with the application for citizens to find their voting booths. The civic body recently undertook the mammoth task of surveying the registered voters in the city. The survey’s aim was also to bifurcate the electoral rolls.

As per the survey, Mumbai has 87 lakh registered voters in the city. During the BMC’s ‘voter awareness’ campaign, another 3 lakh new voters were added to the list. The survey was also taken as a precaution against allegations of bogus voters and duplications.

According to officials, BMC will be deploying more than 50,000 administrative officials on election duty. As per directives from the election commission, the civic body is also expected to complete the entire process of elections by March 8, 2017.

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