24 April,2009 09:00 AM IST | | Kaumudi Gurjar
Voters received these garbled responses when they tried to locate their polling booths using the SMS service launched by the district collector
Pune may be emerging as the IT capital of the country, but when it comes to easing the voting process for its citizens, even technology has not helped Puneites. An SMS service and a website launched by the Pune district collector to enable voters to check their names on voter lists have been riddled with problems and left citizens flummoxed. However, the three landline numbers functioned properly.
Voters who wished to track the booth where their name is registered via the SMS service had to simply type 'get-pun-Name-Husband/Father's Name-Surname' and send the SMS to '54646'. Those who tried this got an error message in return which read "Sorry wrong keyword, did u mean Gear, gecko, gej, genben, geneva, genguj, genpun, gentam, get1, getsms?" The message then goes on to suggest the user should send the correct keyword to 54646.
When this reporter tried the SMS service, she too got a similar reply. On the other hand, District Collector Chandrakant Dalvi told MiD-DAY, "The SMS service was completely functional. If anyone encountered problems while getting the information, it was either due to congestion in the network or wrong spelling." He added, "Since the launch of this helpline, last month, more than 1,200 voters have availed of this facility."
The website too did not live up to the claims and yielded no results for such queries. However, the landline phone did not give any problems.
On voting day, 546 voters availed of this facility. According to the clerk manning the phones, the calls came in from all over the city, including Shivaji Nagar, Hadapsar and Baramati.
