Today’s youth better informed about festival of democracy
2 min readPatna: With the slogan of ‘Uchcha gunwatta, twarit nirman, vote karna hamari shan‘ (high quality, quick construction, casting vote is our pride), the state road construction department (RCD) organized a voters’ sensitization programme under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) initiative of the Election Commission for its personnel on Friday. Several video clippings were also screened on the occasion.
Describing the SVEEP initiative as a ‘novel’ one, RCD secretary Pratyay Amrit said in continuation with the initiative, several district magistrates were giving new ideas to increase the voter turnout in their respective districts. Elaborating on the enthusiasm of the youth for participating in the election, he said they are far more motivated and informed about this festival of democracy than their parents.
Maintaining that the voter turnout in the general elections post Independence too was good, Amrit lamented that the people of his generation took democracy for granted and most of them preferred, say, watching a cricket match to exercising their franchise. He said even the efforts made by Bihar chief electoral officer (CEO) Ajay V Nayak and additional CEO R Lakshmanan would not deliver the desired result unless the masses support their endeavour.
Expressing concern over just 44% voter turnout in the last election, Lakshmanan said holding free, fair and participative general election has been the main objective of the EC. Holding that the delivery of the voter identification cards was the top priority of the EC and every voter in the state would get this card at least five days before the polling, he said this would be considered a valid identity proof document for voting.
Answering a query regarding postal ballot facility, Lakshmanan said the facility was meant only for those working in the defence services and the government staff involved in election duty. Replying to another question regarding non-resident voters, he said it was necessary for them to get their names transferred to the place of their residence.
Courtesy: TNN
