Pune: All 4,715 urban polling stations in the district will be equipped with webcasting facilities to rule out slow voting and ensure thorough monitoring of booths, Pune collector Suhas Diwase said on Monday. In comparison, only 50% of booths in rural areas will have webcasting facilities, he added. "A total of 6,594 out of the total 8,472 polling stations will have webcasting facilities," the collector said.
In rural areas of the district, 1878 booths will have webcasting facilities. Webcasting viewing rooms have been set up in urban assembly constituencies as well as in the district. The webcasting facilities will help monitor any kind of slow voting in urban polling constituencies, following the Election Commission of India's (ECI) directions to monitor slow voting in urban areas, especially in constituencies such as Colaba in Mumbai.
Separate initiatives have been taken to focus on urban polling booths and efforts have been made to ensure that the voting experience is hassle-free. "We are hoping that the voter turnout will be better than both the recent Lok Sabha polls and 2019 assembly polls," said the collector. He said all polling booths will have minimum assured facilities to ensure that voters have a hassle-free experience.
All changes in polling stations have been communicated through boards or voter helplines, providing details to voters to avoid any confusion. Pune district has maximum number of voters at 88.49 lakh.
The collector said that 7.22 lakh voters were a.