Commission urges youth to register as voters before Oct 14

In view of the mega civic poll exercise early next year, State Election Commission of Maharashtra (SECM) today urged the young voters, especially those who will be 18 years of age by January 1, 2017, to enrol themselves as voters by October 14.
Speaking to reporters here, Maharashtra Election Commissioner JS Saharia said eligible voters, who enrol before January 1, 2017, will be allowed to exercise their franchise.
Civic polls of 10 big municipal corporations and 26 zilla parishads are due between February and May 2017, he said.
Taking note of the youth's preference for the social media, Saharia said besides using the conventional means of communication such as hoardings, advertisements in cinema halls etc., the commission was taking the help of college principals and universities to reach out to the youth.

"The commission shall take the help of civic bodies which have Facebook pages, community radio stations such as the one started by Pune University to post video clips and air radio jingles, urging the youth to enrol as voters," he said.
Besides, the commission also intends to ask the chairmen and secretaries of cooperative housing societies to ensure voter enrollment in their housing societies, he added.

Saharia said in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Co-operative Department have already sent notices to over 40,000 cooperative housing societies in this regard.
"The voter registration drive has commenced from September

16 and will go on till October 14. The final voter list, on the basis of which the 2017 civic polls will be held, will be published on January 5," Saharia added.
Explaining the magnitude of the civic polls, he said the 26 zilla parishads cover a population of around 5.50 crore and the 10 municipal corporations cover a population of around 2.50 crore.
The 10 municipal corporations where the polls are due in February-March are -- Mumbai, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur.
Five more municipal corporations -- Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Malegaon, Latur, Parbhani and Chandrapur -- are scheduled to witness the polls in April-May.

Saharia said polls will not be held in Mumbai, Thane, Bhandara, Gondia and Washim zilla parishads.
In the case of Thane Zilla Parishad, the matter is in the court, he added.
Besides, along with the 26 zilla parishads, polls will also be held in 296 panchayat samitis coming under the zilla parishads.
Saharia said the total population coming under the zilla parishads and panchayat samitis is around eight crore.
The zilla parishad and panchayat samiti polls will practically cover the entire state, he added.