The Chamoli district administration has claimed to have made adequate arrangements to ensure peaceful polling for the Tharali Assembly by- election slated on May 28. The District Magistrate Ashish Joshi who is also the district election officer chaired a meeting held on Monday which was focused on how to ensure maximum voter turnout for the by-election. He also asked the media persons to motivate the voters to reach the polling booths to exercise their franchise on the day of polling.
Joshi said that the voter turnout in the last Assembly election had been very poor in the Tharali Assembly seat. “We are concerned over the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the voters at the time. We must go all- out this time to ensure that the turnout is much better. We are seeking the cooperation of the media for the purpose,” he said.
DM directed all concerned to arrange programmes in the degree colleges and the schools to motivate the voters to cast votes. “Casting votes by one and all is a must for the democracy to thrive. They must be made aware of the importance of exercising franchise through multiple means like singing of folk songs, arranging sports events, coining slogans and the like. The role of the booth level officers is great too as they would distribute the voters slips among the voters,” DM said.
Notably, for Tharali seat, the number registered voters is 99186 – 50949 male and 48 237 female. The number of polling booths is 178 and the maximum booths are located in Meltha where the number of voters is over 1000. The highest attitude polling booth is at Kanol, situated at a height of 8456 ft.
At the time of the 2017 Assembly election, the number of voters for Tharali Assembly seat was 98541 – 50708 male and 47833 female. Just 11 of the booths set up at the time saw brisk polling while others registered a poor turnout.