Chief Electoral Officer, Jharkhand K Ravi Kumar today said that the SVEEP program is being run by the Election Commission of India with the aim of making young voters aware about voting and celebrating voting as a great festival of the country. He said that just as there is an atmosphere of joy in festivals, similarly this time the voting has to be created as a great festival of the country. For this purpose, today the Election Mascot "i-Bhai" is dedicated to all the voters.
Kumar was addressing the media representatives today during the inauguration ceremony of Election Mascot "i-Bhai" and other publicity materials for the purpose of making voters aware from the auditorium at Nirvachan Sadan, Dhurva.
Apart from Election Mascot "i-Bhai", rap songs and songs in local language were also launched with the aim of ensuring 100% participation in voting by all categories of voters including young voters. Voters will be made aware and motivated to vote through songs in the local language Nagpuri.
He said that through this mascot, more awareness videos will be released on topics like the process of conducting elections at the polling station, use of postal ballot etc.
In the programme, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr. Neha Arora informed about extending the date of Jharkhand Voter Awareness Contest till April 10, 2024. He said that the participants should ensure their participation till the stipulated period. Earlier its date was fixed as 31 March 2024. He said that entries in this competition are free and winners are to be rewarded. He appealed to the people that maximum number of people should participate in this competition.
On this occasion, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sandeep Singh, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr. Neha Arora, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Subodh Kumar, OSD Geeta Choubey, Deputy Electoral Officer Sanjay Kumar and all the officers/employees of the Chief Electoral Office were present. The lyrics of the video song released in the local language have been written by Joint Chief Electoral Officer Subodh Kumar and the concept of the said awareness song is also his.
The Election Commission of India has made provision for voting through postal ballot for persons on polling duty, persons working for 'essential services' and voters who are unable/disabled to exercise their franchise by reaching the polling booth. Detailed guidelines in this regard have been issued by the Election Commission of India.
For this, special instructions have been given regarding timeliness of necessary preparations. A database has to be prepared for such voters and Form 12D is to be issued to them. Therefore, all preparations should be done as per the guidelines received. Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr. Neha Arora said these things today. Today, through video conferencing from Nirvachan Sadan Dhurwa, she was reviewing the progress of collection of forms for preparations for voting through postal ballot with the nodal officers and other officials of the Postal Ballot Cell of all the districts.
After getting information about the status of issuance of Form 12, 12A and 12D and their compilation, he directed to bring progress in it. He asked to ensure that not even a single voter of disabled and senior category be left out.
He directed to regularly update the database for voters eligible for postal ballot as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India. OSD Headquarters Geeta Choubey and other officials were present in the review meeting.
