Poll planning should start soon for better management

Citizens outside a polling booth during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, at Colaba. Pic/Bipin Kokate

In a bid to avoid crowding in these times and maintain social distancing during the civic elections scheduled for February 2022, there will have to be an increase in the number of polling booths, a report in this paper stated.

We also have a situation where several bigger grounds in this city have been taken over as jumbo COVID care centres, so the civic authorities do have a major challenge. In a city, where space is at an absolute premium, there has to be careful thought and vision about where polling booths can be incorporated. By the BMC's own admission, they are looking at venues as more polling booths are supposed to be set up, with an intent to avoid crowding.

Concrete poll plans and implementation is going to pick up pace post Diwali. One hopes that they begin early, so that there is plenty of time to train staff - they will need special additional training about polls during pandemic, and there is also time to envision and fill in lapses or glitches.

If we have a decent timeline, then there is less panic and it gives authorities plenty of elbow room to fill in possible cracks or actually look at the scenario through a lens and see where they can make improvements or changes.

Last-minute work, like in any aspect in life, usually leads to panic, myopia and shoddy implementation which, in turn, will lead to significant problems come the voting day.

We must also note that the pandemic is taking a shifting, fluid form, and what is true today, may be very different tomorrow. This makes advance preparation even more important. Let us prove that the outbreak may be an obstacle, but with vision and intelligence we can get over this hurdle smoothly in the conduct of our life.