Focus on 3,700 low-turnout booths in Jharkhand's urban areas, special awareness drive planned

Ranchi, Mar 26 (PTI) A total of 3,753 low-turnout polling booths located in different urban areas of Jharkhand have been identified, and a special awareness campaign will be undertaken there to encourage people to turn up for voting, officials said on Tuesday.

These seats, located in Ranchi, Hatia, Kanke, Jharia, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Sindri, Nirsa, Jamshedpur, Hazaribag, Deoghar, Ramgarh and Jugsalai, recorded a voter turnout of less than 67.4 per cent, which was the national average in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, they said "We have initiated several awareness programmes to increase the polling percentage in urban booths during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. We have already identified the booths and divided them into various categories so that awareness campaign could be put in place accordingly," Chef Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar told PTI.

There were 35 booths where the turnout was less than 30 per cent, while 209 booths recorded polling percentages of between 30 and 40 per cent. As many as 794 booths recorded turnout between 40 and 50 per cent.

There are a total of 5,945 urban polling stations in the state.

Besides the awareness activity, pick-and-drop facilities would be provided to voters above 80 years and persons with disabilities to ensure that no voter is left behind, another official said.

Booth Awareness Groups (BAG) and Voters Awareness Forums (VAF) have been set up to increase the voter turnout in the urban areas, he said.

The BAGs will encourage voters at the booth level, while VAFs have been formed in government and private offices with an aim to create awareness and facilitate voters' education, he added.

"In urban areas, there is apathy among a section of people living in apartments towards voting. So, the secretaries or members of their associations are being involved in awareness drives. The voters are being urged to use the holiday on the day of polling by exercising their franchise first," the official said.

Door-to-door campaigns will also be undertaken in the urban areas, he said.

A massive awareness driver has also been launched in rural Jharkhand. As many as 9,605 polling booths out of the total 23,519 had recorded voters' turnout less than the national average in 2019, he said.

Jharkhand's overall voter turnout in 2019 was 66.8 per cent. PTI SAN SAN SOM