Age was no bar in the Navi Mumbai municipal voters' list

over three lakh people cast their vote to choose amongst 521 candidates in the navi mumbai municipal corporation elections on sunday. before actually going to the polling booth, the electorate had to contend with a bizarre voting list. "the age of one of the voters was stated to be 277 years in one list, while another voter was aged `zero' in the list," informed arun g shinde of peasants and workers party. apart from thousands of names missing form the list, "hundreds of names were duplicated,'' said independent candidate advocate paul paulose, who put the list on his computer and the alphabetical order revealed the duplications. "this list left much room for bogus voting, and i wonder if the 'mistakes' in the voters' list were incidental," he said while promising to set right the present voter's list which failed to include the names of over 6000 new entrants aged 18-23 years. "this election was certainly not fair with names of eligible voters missing,'' lamented 20-year-old seema, worried that all subsequent elections will proceed without the younger generation. unlike the last civic election held in 1994, when the total voter turnout in several areas was as low as 11 per cent (when the shiv sena candidates had a majority in the civic body "because the majority did not vote!" said political observers), this election witnessed an outburst of enthusiasm, from both, the voters as well as the candidates. 50 per cent were women candidates and 15 per cent youngsters, below 30 years, even as over 50 per cent were independent and not affiliated to any political group. "is it economical for an average citizen to live in navi mumbai?'', asked som kumar, chairman of a residential association at vashi. several prominent professional and independent candidates promised to review the steep property tax, water tax and toll tax of rs.15 on every four wheeler leaving and entering navi mumbai while using the new bridge connecting mumbai. however voters from every ward do not believe that corporators are keen to reduce these taxes, "as each corporator receives up to rs.50 lakhs for infrastructural developments in their ward, spread over the five year term and it is known that they keep a percentage of this allowance for getting the work done.'' "however, i do not need rs.50 lakhs to please my voters,'' declared paulose. "it certainly does not cost rs.50 lakhs to clear the ward of biting stray dogs, mosquitoes and malaria menace as well as the mushrooming hutments and the growing number of hawkers for which, all i have to do is activate the existing civic machinery", he declared. since the voters' list had not been revised in the last five years by the thane collectorate, and the blunderous divisions by the nmmc of the voters into the ward areas, the rapid developments in navi mumbai was totally ignored, said members of the citizen's committees. citing the example of karave village ward, which now includes the prestigious seawoods complex and sector 29 societies which are actually clubbed with the backward koprigaon, the voters wonder how ethos for two diverse areas can be lumped together. "if the local self government has to be strengthened, then be sensitive task of appropriate division of wards is a fundamental task, which has been clearly defeated in this election,'' said the voters.