The Uttarakhand Election Watch (UEW) will begin its interactive sessions with voters from Dehradun and Haridwar districts with major focus on Chakrata. Voters will be informed about the use of money and muscle power to lure the electorate and need for all to cast their vote for good governance.
Dissemination of information will be in the form of village level meetings, distribution of literature and documentaries, wherever possible. These decisions were taken in the first meeting of the UEW core committee held in Dehradun.
UEW, along the lines of National Election Watch and under the aegis of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) New Delhi, has been set up to create voter awareness at the State-level. The objective is to ensure free and fair elections through a State-wide public awareness campaign which will also focus on good candidates, higher voter registration and turnout, said UEW coordinator BP Maithani.
Noted local industrialist and philanthropist S Farooq was the chief guest in the core committee meet. While consenting to be part of the awareness campaign, Farooq also urged the UEW to look into the matter of the appointment of lokayukta in Uttarakhand. During the core committee meet a committee for engagement with the media and educational institutions was set up with Maithani, retired IAS officer Chandra Singh, Brig (retd) KG Behl, Cyril R Raphael and YB Sharma on board. The committee will also try to rope in a media partner for an intensive campaign in the print and electronic media.
Maithani, who will be the UEW lead campaigner and spokesperson, said that eminent citizens will also be approached for video bytes on the need for free and fair elections. To create awareness amongst the youth UEW decided to conduct an essay competition on ‘Ensuring Free and Fair Elections” for all colleges at the State level.
The competition will be sponsored by ADR with RTI Club as its partner organisation. NGOs working at the grass-root level will also be roped in to join the campaign to ensure free and fair elections. It was also decided that UEW will expand the scope of its awareness campaign on getting feedback from the teams working in Dehradun and Haridwar.