Drive to make electoral process transparent
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Chennai: With hardly six months to go for election work to commence in Tamil Nadu, the public (elections) department has kickstarted reaching out to civil society, NGOs, volunteers and youngsters as part of the efforts to improve the draft electoral rolls.
The Election Commission is now focused on multi media campaigns, inclusion of NRIs and the physically challenged in voters rolls and to increase the enrollment in the newly eligible 18-19 years age group from existing 50 per cent to 80 per cent coverage, officials on poll duty said.
They said chief electoral officer Sandeep Saxena has started sending official communiqué to district election officers and civil society seeking public participation to make the electoral process more transparent and to ensure maximum polling in all districts.
The communication letter has also requested the public and social activists to come out with ideas and suggestions to thrash out issues pertaining to voters with physical disabilities, analysis of Assembly constituency booths and tapping NRI families seeking inclusion of their names in the voters list.
“Despite campaigns, the percentage of voting over the last many elections has been disturbing with a major city like Chennai polling at times less than 60 percent. There is a need for more vigorous campaign”, said Nisha Thotta, general secretary, Shudda. During the 2014 parliamentary polls, several campaigns were conducted in colleges to boost polling in Chennai.
“On the day of polling, youngsters prefer watching movies in cinema theatres. I have seen local crowds thronging the theatres in Central Chennai during the last Lok Sabha elections”, rued a former DMK councillor. He felt that closure of cinema theatres in the forenoon will improve polling percentage.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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