Maha election: Duplicate voter IDs for 5.5 lakh flood-hit people

Pune: In view of the next month's Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Kolhapur and Sangli district administrations have decided to distribute duplicate voter ID cards to nearly 5.5 lakh people whose documents were damaged or lost during floods last month, officials said on Monday.

Over 340 villages in Kolhapur were fully or partially affected by the unprecedented deluge after heavy rains. Of these, around 27 villages in Shirol, Hatkanangale and Karvir tehsils bore maximum brunt of the calamity. "Since the state Assembly polls are now approaching, we have decided to distribute duplicate voter identification cards to voters in these 27 villages," Kolhapur Collector Daulat Desai said.

Over 1.5 lakh duplicate voter ID cards have been printed for distribution among these villages, he said.

Similarly, in neighboring Sangli, the authorities have so far distributed over two lakh duplicate voter IDs to people from Shirala, Walwa, Palus and Miraj tehsils, which were severely affected by floods, an official from Sangli district administration said.

"Assuming that people living in these flood-ravaged areas might have misplaced their important documents, we had sought over four lakh duplicate voter IDs. So far, we have received over 3.8 lakh

duplicate voter IDs and more than two lakh of these have been distributed among people," he said.