DEOLALI CAMP: The varied board, currently working for Deolali after the dissolution of the board on 10th January 2021, published a voter list on 1st July, and 19,052 voter’s names have been omitted from the list compared to 2014. As a result, the political arena is witnessing a stir. In 2014, the voter’s strength was 38,280. Instead of witnessing an increase, the number decreased to 19,228 thus, omitting 19,052 voters from the list. In 2016, the Supreme Court passed an order stating the removal of resident’s names whose building plans haven’t been approved by the board. As a result, residents in unregistered buildings have been omitted from the list.
Ward no. 7 has been severely affected by the order. In 2014, the number of voters in this ward was 7,050, which reduced to 334 in 2021. In ward no.3, the number of voters reduced from 3,696 in 2014 to 3,842 in 2021. The election date hasn’t been announced yet, but the varied board has kick-started the preparations.
As the Cantonment Electoral rules differ from other governing bodies’ rules, the laws are lengthy and varied. The Cantonment Act was enacted in 1924, and the Cantonment Electoral role in 1945 and amended in 2007. All the cantonment elections across are held as per the electoral roll. According to the provisions, the voters are registered in June every year and the list is published on 1st July every year.
The residents have time till 20th July for objections pertaining to the list or addition of the names to the list. The Board Chairman will hear the objections and announce the final list on 15th September.
The central govt has started preparations at the administrative level for a single election law across the country. Therefore, if a new law is enacted in the forthcoming Parliamentary session, the provisions of the old law may be repealed. In a democracy, all citizens should have an equal right to vote.
Ward no., 2014, 2021
1. 5282, 2026
2. 2963, 2020
3. 3696, 3842
4. 4647, 2371
5. 3461, 1637
6. 4635, 1747
7. 7050, 334
8. 5946, 5211
Total: 38280, 19228
