In a bid to encourage Mumbaikars to step out of their homes and vote on February 21, the State Election Commission (SEC) has added a polling booth navigation feature to its `True Voter' mobile application. It allows users to look up their respective polling booth locations and find the easiest and quickest routes to them using global positioning system (GPS).
The SEC has also roped in cab aggregators Ola and Uber for the initiative so that their navigation systems incorporate precise polling booth locations.
Any android user can download the 'True Voter' app, launched last In January, through the Google Play Store. The application has already gotten around 50,000 downloads with good reviews from users.
A senior SEC official told DNA that the mobile booth data will be incorporated in the application by February 14.
"During meetings with several dignitaries, we realised that many upper middle class and upper class citizens find it tedious to look for polling booths and reach there. Our polling booths are mostly in municipal schools, which many find hard to navigate through, while some feel that it is too far to travel. This is one of the reasons why the voter turnout is reducing. Hence, the concept," he said.
"At just a click, any registered voter can find the location of their polling booth. To get there, we have provided a new feature with widely used taxi aggregators Ola and Uber," the officer added.
The application was developed with the help of the state government's information technology department and Abhinav IT Solutions Pvt Ltd.
How to use the app to find a polling booth in your area
Download the app True Voter from Android Play Store
Register with your email id and mobile number
Select your local body
Enter your name and find it in the registered voter's list
Check your electoral ward and polling booth address
Click on the polling booth and you will get directions
You can also book an Ola or Uber cab, and they will help you to reach your polling booth
The voting percentage for the civic polls has usually been around 45 to 50 percentage. The state election commission in a study recently has citied 26 reasons why cities have a lower voting count for civic elections. Some of the prominent reasons are-
Frustration for government and hate for politics
Laziness to register and to vote
Inconvenience to reach polling booth
Feeling that loss of one vote does not matter
Unawareness that more voting will have better governance
Don't know the candidates
People settled in Mumbai from outside has no affection for the city and feel no need to vote.
While, some of the reasons of the upper class population are-
Feeling that it is not of their standard to wait in queue with common people to vote
Self-contention.
Money can solve my problems
Feeling that I have no work with the Municipal Corporation and never visit it.
