250 voters from Kalyaninagar in the wrong ward

PUNE: About 250 residents from Panel 5 (Kalyaninagar-Vadgaonsheri) have been listed either in Ward No. 2 (Phulenagar-Nagpur Chawl) or Ward No. 3 (Vimannagar-Somnathnagar). In a few cases, members of the same family found their names in different wards.
As a consequence, in Tuesday’s civic election, they will vote from a ward they don’t live in.
Ganesh Mohan Bagde, a Kalyaninagar resident since 1994, has applied at least five times to change his address in the voters’ list.He has five election cards, but none of those reflects the changed address yet.
“I have been requesting for a change in address from Irrigation colony (Yerawada) to Kalyaninagar. But, when the civic polls list was released, the changes were not made,” Bagde said, “I am so disappointed. I will be writing to the collector. However, I am determined to vote, even if it is for another ward, as it is my right.”
Bagde’s wife Anuradha and son Abhay too find themselves in a similar situation.
Ashok Shelar, a resident of Kalyaninagar’s Neptune Society, found his name in Ward No. 5, while his son and daughter-in-law have been assigned to the Don Bosco voting centre in Ward 3.
“This mistake is not unique to my family,” Shelar said. “Those from parts of Gandhinagar slum — which apparently comes under Ward No. 2 — have their names in Ward No. 3, and the same mistake has been repeated for so many others in Kalyaninagar,” he added.
Amardeep Raizada, member of the Kalyaninagar Residents Association, has a similar issue. “Our association has received many complaints regarding such mistakes already, and everyone is very unhappy,” Raizada said.
Some voters said last-minute attempts to get these errors fixed were not entertained, and are anxious about missing out on a chance to cast votes this time.
However, Pune Municipal Corporation election official Satish Kulkarni explained, “The voter list was declared two months ago based on the residential addresses available with the (election) commission. Voters had to check the list and get any discrepancies corrected. The voters list was declared based on the list from the assembly elections.”