Rigorous efforts are on to raise the voting percentage across the Bokaro district. The district administration has taken up innovative campaigns to catch the voter's attention.
To increase voting percentage in the upcoming Assembly polls in the district, this district administration and district SVEEP committee have launched a Voter Selfie Zone at Bokaro Niwas. Many such Selfie Zones will be setup across the city and in its outskirts to aware voters, said Mukesh Kumar District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Bokaro.
"To encourage the voters to exercise their franchise and increase the percentage of polling, officials have been directed to set up selfie points at the earliest. Specially designed frames would be set up with the motivating messages where the people can pose for a selfie or get a photograph," added the DC. On the launching of the selfie zone DC Mukesh Kumar, DDC Ravi Ranjan Mishra, AC Vijay Kumar Gupta have also taken their selfie at Bokaro Niwas. DC stressed that the selfie points would help voters to think about their right to vote.To attract more voters, district election authorities under SVEEP have decided to come out with a selfie point at Bokaro Mall too, said a district public relation official. "Behind this awareness programme our motto is to increase voting the percentage from 65 to 80 percent in this assembly poll," said the official.
A few weeks earlier the DC also launched a unique initiative with a slogan-- 'Matdan Aawasy Kare Kyunki Bokaro bemishal hai' (Must vote because Bokaro is unmatched or unparallel), arms band to the officials and employees to increase the voting percentage in the assembly election.
In order to raise voters’ awareness and participation in ensuing assembly poll, the armbands has been launched under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme, said Kumar. "We are trying our best to draw voters to the booths by educating them on their right to vote," he added. All the district administration officials and personnel are holding the armband till the end of the election. Our aim is to keep on publishing about the importance of voting through this armband, he said. Under SVEEP, Special awareness campaigns have been launched for women, youth, and nomads including other residents, said an official.
The SVEEP contains the following activities: Dissemination of Information, Motivation Message, and Approach (Strategy).
The main objectives include increasing the registration of voters, especially women, newly eligible voters, youth and socially marginalised sections; improving the voter turnout by way of motivation; photo inclusion in the electoral roll; issue of EPIC; and ethical voting, said the official.
Notably, SVEEP was first rolled out in 2009-2010 assembly elections and in the last three years, voter registration, especially among youth has gone up from 15 percent to 35 percent and almost all assembly elections held since 2010, recorded high voter turnout with greater participation from youth and women, he said.
The Naxal zone of the district also saw a huge rise in voter participation in the past assembly poll and recent Lok Sabha elections after the SVEEP plan was rolled out, he said.