Kurla voters suffer crowds, delays despite better arrangements than LS polls

While a few polling stations in Kurla experienced crowding and residents of redeveloping buildings complained about not receiving election slips the voting process was otherwise smooth Activists from the Kurla Dairy area also gathered to cast their votes in support of greeneryldquoThis time the polling booths were spread out with some even set up on the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar playground However the classrooms and narrow corridors at the SKP Walawalkar School were still jampacked with long queues moving very slowly The wait time was lengthyrdquo said resident Farida AlamAbhishek Agarwal Disha Agarwal Vivek Gharat and Jitendra GuptaAnother resident Janak Gala added ldquoThe SKP School setup was the same as every year with no big changes despite the booths being spread out There is a need for further distribution of polling booths There was crowding no doubt but it was less compared to previous years and the conditions were much betterrdquoResidents of Kurla who have launched a citizen movement called Lok Chalwal urged people to vote to preserve greenery and protect nature ldquoIt is important to save the green lung of Kurlardquo said group coordinator Kiran Pailwan The group even distributed Tshirts to the first 50 firsttime voters aged 1822 encouraging them to post selfies within the groupThe Nehru Nagar police in Kurla summoned a member of Lok Chalwal for questioning Nilesh Kamble a member of Lok Chalwal said ldquoWe were taking group photos near Kadam Nath Marg in Nehru Nagar Kurla Someone informed the police that we were campaigning for a political party The police recorded our written statement and the entire process took three hoursrdquoNo polling booth details for redeveloping buildingsThe social media made the EC number 1950 viral to get polling details by sending SMS on this number by simply typing Voter ID number on voter card Surprisingly the SMS that is received immediately fails to give the polling booth number and address Our building at Kurla west along LBS Marg has been pulled down for redevelopment So no polling booth details were received by voters This led to problems said Jitendra Gupta picWhere is HindildquoI am sure everyone has voted today However have you noticed one thing After voting the VVPAT machine displays the candidates name on the paper in Marathi English and surprisingly in Urdu Has the Election Commission forgotten that our national language is Hindi Therefore a written complaint needs to be filed with the Election Commission officials at the booth said Nehru Nagar Kurla resident Vivek Gharat picElection slips came in lateFirst time voter Disha Lalit Agrawal pic said she felt proud to give her first vote but said election slips need to come in time ldquoI thank the Maharashtra election commission for giving me a chance to select the right candidate but a humble request to the election commission department to provide the election slip on time because I faced some problem with getting election sliprdquo she saidOnline voting should be triedAnother first time voter Abhishek Agarwal pic said he was very excited to vote but getting in the queue and reaching the spot can be discouraging ldquoTechnology is so advanced that we should also explore the method of safe and secure online voting The Gen Next numbers and participation in the election process will increaserdquo297000Approx No of voters in Kurla