The Office of Chief Electoral Officer Jharkhand is all set to celebrate the sixth National Voters’ Day (NVD) with an expected full participation by all the five universities in the State on January 25 that is yet to be designated a theme like every year.
The Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi said that the five universities in the city have already been working hard to conduct election awareness quiz competitions at the university-level.
“The principals of all colleges under the five universities have been directed to hold the quiz competition in a bid to educate the new voters about the registration process and also encourage them to enroll in the electoral process. The names of the winners from about five colleges have already come in and we will have the complete list of winners hopefully by Monday. The district-level competition is scheduled to be held on January 5,” said Manoj Kumar.
The DC also said that apart from quiz competition, other activities such as essay writing, painting, debate and sports will be held at university and district-level in the coming days to create and spread the awareness among the youth. “Every college has selected a Campus Ambassador in order to keep a check on the overall process of registration and oath taking amongst the new voters. Each new voter has been invited to attend the celebration ceremony at Ranchi University on NVD,” added Kumar.
The State and the district-level celebration are scheduled to be held at the Aryabhatta Hall in Ranchi University. Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu is the chief guest for the event and would be flagging off the various programmes being organised by the Office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
Along with the awareness programmes, all government officials, bank officials, divisional railway managers and other officials will be taking the voters pledge on the National Voters Day.
In a meeting chaired by the Deputy Electoral Officer of Ranchi Geeta Chaubey all government officials, bank, railway and other managers were requested to educate their subordinates on the larger participation of citizens in the country’s electoral process as against the current level of participation.
“Senior Government employees present at the meeting held on December 31 were directed to spread the awareness in the respective organizations amongst the staff and aim at maximum enrollment in the voters list, especially the youth. The CEO office has also organized an online quiz competition with the sole aim of encouraging more and more participation that would allow any eligible candidates to register for participation by January 20. The winners will be awarded on the National Voters Day at Ranchi University,” said an official from the Office of Chief Electoral Officer.
January 25 is also the foundation day of the Commission that came into being in 1950 on the same day. The Election Commission's objective through NVD is to increase enrollment of voters, especially of the newly-eligible ones. The National Voters' Day is mainly utilised to spread awareness regarding effective and maximum participation in the electoral process amongst the youth to bridge the huge gap in the largest democratic nation’s electoral roll.