Over two lakh people filled up forms at the special camps held all over the State on the directive of the Election Commission to get their names included in the electoral rolls till Sunday last, as per information received from 39 out of 51 districts.
Of them, 88,894 were of 18-19 years, including 47,326 males, 39,537 females and 2,031 others. As many as 1.22 lakh voters above the age of 19 years also applied. They included 61,110 males and 61, 294 females.So far, of the applications received at the camps, 35,301 new voters have been included in the electoral rolls. Only 25 were rejected.
Process to include the remaining names is under way. According to Chief Electoral Officer Jaideep Govind, information is being collected from the 12 remaining districts also. They include Neemuch, Mandsaur, Ujjain, Dhar, Jhabua, Alirajpur, Barwani, Khargone, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Raisen and Shivpuri.
SVEEP campaign
Meanwhile, according to a directive issued by the Union Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry, the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and the National Service Scheme (NSS) will help in the systematic voters' education and electoral participation (SVEEP) campaign being held to educate the voters and increase the polling percentage during the lok Sabha elections.
Special voter awareness campaigns will be launched in the rural areas and efforts will be made to increase the number of voters by 10 per cent compared to last election. The young workers with the help of the local people will hold street plays, rallies etc. at the polling booths. These units will make special efforts in areas where the number of women voters is fewer. They will hold meetings with ASHA and other workers in such areas.
The young activists have been asked to conduct programmes in local dialects. These programmes will be reviewed at the State level every 15 days from March 15.