No mobile phones allowed inside polling station, says Mumbai district election officer

Mumbai: In a press conference on Wednesday, municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, who is the district election officer for both the city and suburbs for the upcoming assembly election, announced that mobile phones will not be allowed inside polling stations.
Gagrani said that voters will have to either leave their phones at home or hand them over to someone outside.During the recent Lok Sabha election, there was confusion as some polling booths permitted phones as long as they were switched off while others did not.
The four additional municipal commissioners and the district collectors of the city and suburbs were appointed additional district election officers. There are a total of 36 assembly constituencies in the jurisdiction of the BMC, with 10 in the city district and 26 in the suburban district.
Gagrani said the mapping of vulnerable polling booths was ongoing, but so far none had been classified as vulnerable. Oct 19 is the final date for voter registration, after which no changes will be made to the voting list.
He urged political party workers to raise awareness among voters about the location of their polling booths to ensure maximum voter turnout. According to the voter list, Chandivli has the highest number of voters at 4.47 lakh while Wadala has the lowest at 2.05 lakh.
Gagrani said they were working on ensuring that all unauthorised posters and banners in the city are pulled down at the earliest.
The BMC said that taking lessons from the recent Lok Sabha election and to avoid any crowds at one polling booth, decentralisation of polling stations has been carried out. "On polling day, each polling station will be provided with basic facilities such as drinking water, toilets, seating arrangements in queues, and waiting rooms for voters in case of crowding," Gagrani said.
Apart from this, letters containing information about polling stations with a QR code and signed by the relevant voter registration officer are being delivered to each voter's home, said BMC.