Exercising its franchise in enrolling more young voters, the Punjab Election Commission has decided to catch them in the college grounds.
The Commission, as a part of Election Commission of India's (ECI) initiative, has planned to launch a campaign in all the colleges or universities to encourage the students attaining the age of 18 to register as voters.
For the same, the Commission would appoint Campus Ambassadors (CA) in all educational institutes of the State who would persuade the first time voters to enroll themselves in the electoral rolls.
The EC has issued directions to appoint Campus Ambassadors in each college so as to facilitate enlistment of fresh voters. These ambassadors will coordinate the enrolment of new voters on campuses by distributing form 6 copies to the students.
The State Chief Electoral Office would identify some of the students to be appointed as CAs to motivate the first-time voters in an apparent bid to increase the voting turnout in the next polls. Punjab is trudging towards Assembly polls to be held in next January.
The ambassadors, thus appointed, would use creative endeavours to inform, encourage and motivate students to register for the electoral rolls and to vote.
The Commission is planning to reach out to the constituent colleges of the State's universities, including Chandigarh's Panjab University, Patiala's Punjabi University, Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University, among others, besides the private colleges and institutes which would like to have such ambassadors.
"For this, we are planning to rope in the State Higher Education Department," a senior election commission's official told The Pioneer.
The official informed that these ambassadors will distribute and collect completed application forms at a common point or get students to apply through the online portal with the help from institution heads like principals.
"Their main motive will be to encourage the students to ensure maximum enrolment," the official added, while making it clear that the selected students should be meritorious and "away from politics".
In Punjab, potential first-time voters lack enthusiasm of sorts to participate in the democratic process of electing the representatives of people as more than 95 percent teenagers with voting rights in the state do not have the voting identity cards.
As per the data available, 10.84 lakhs (10,84,861) out of the estimated 11,36,212 eligible persons in the age-group of 18-19 years are still without voting identity cards. Only 51,351 have their voter identity cards.
The figures assume significance as their absence from electoral roll indicates lack of enthusiasm among them while most of the political parties in the State are devising their strategies to woo the youngsters.
The State Chief Electoral officer VK Singh had admitted the gap in the age-cohort of 18-19 years, while stating that to target this gap, special campaigns have been launched in educational institutions through partner organisations and Government departments.