By- Shivli Singh
Pimpri-Chinchwad, Maharashtra:
Official figures from election authorities showed turnout at polls of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) elections on Tuesday was 40.5 per cent by 3.30 pm. Polling started around the city at 7.30 am and proceeded under tight security arrangements. At the polling stations in Pimpri-Chinchwad, 6,94,178 voters voted from 7.30 am to 3.30 pm, officials said. Turnout tracked with the overall profile of urban civic elections, with turnout relatively high in the morning and low in the afternoon. According to officials on election, the numbers of people who voted in older residential communities and urban centres were usually higher and turnout remained low for people who opted to settle in higher end housing societies and industrial areas, too. Officials said there was some hope that poll turnout was going to improve later evening as working professionals and evening voters flock to the polls. It counts PCMC elections as part of urban voter turnout in Maharashtra. Voters were discussing a host of civic issues confronting Pimpri-Chinchwad, a large industrial and residential center. So: Poor roads, transport and waste facilities, traffic, water supply and infrastructure irregularity were the questions asked of voters. Security was also enhanced in the city, as the police officers were deployed in various critical areas in the city (namely, at key polling locations and other polling posts that relied heavily on them for the elections’ performance). The overall day-to-day polling campaign was peaceful from start to finish, officials added. Small disruptions, such as some small and immediate hiccups that some of the booths could test with voters’ lists and others were managed within minutes by officials, who said few of those had been resolved, and the entire campaign had not disrupted the elections. Maharashtra urban civic elections have traditionally recorded lower turnout than Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. According to analysts, the reasons are that the electorate is apathetic towards government; they have no idea about what their municipal governments are doing or how they are made to do things; urban residents are short on resources and lack good prospects for work, especially for people working in private enterprise. Election turnout may eventually be revealed after the night polls have ended. The primary among them are the results of the PCMC elections which could determine leadership for the next term from the civic body and how its mandate will be defined and the parameters of the public administration that drive urban development and governance in this case Pimpri-Chinchwad. Voters talked about civic issues of the day at the polls from city halls across Pimpri-Chinchwad, such as deteriorating roads, a growing number of traffic jams, and irregular water supply. Voters cited issues with public transport connectivity, increasing population pressure on infrastructure, and delays in development projects. Dissatisfaction with urban planning and maintenance, quality-of-life issues are among daily life issues, and citizens in some localities say they feel this matters a lot for their municipal elections.