CHANDIGARH: With first-time voters of more than 3.65 lakh in Haryana, the state election commission said on Tuesday that it would rope in musical bands to play election-themed songs to encourage young voters to exercise their franchise and promo wte electoral awareness and education.
“Soon, we will be organising the first show, hopefully in Panchkula. The band will perform and play election-theme music. Later, these bands will be engaged in districts with a higher percentage of young voters,” Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said.
Notably, 1,99,81,982 voters across the state are eligible to cast their votes when polling will be held on May 25 in 10 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state in the sixth phase of general elections. The number of voters in the 18- —to 19-year-old age group is over 3.65 lakh, while the voters aged 20—to 29 years are over 39 lakh.
Agarwal said that the voter turnout in Haryana was recorded at 70 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, this time, our goal is to take it to at least 75 per cent, he added. He that this year, the Election Commission of India has made “Chunav ka Parv – Desh ka Garv” the slogan for Lok Sabha elections so that citizens participate enthusiastically in the elections.
Notably, several unique initiatives have been undertaken by the state election department, including launching the ‘Voters- in-Queue’ app, sending polling invitations to voters akin to wedding invitations, and setting up 31 polling booths in the multi-storey societies of Gurugram.
Through the ‘Voters-in-Queue’ app the voters can obtain information about the queue at polling centres from the comfort of their homes and can go to vote as the crowd decreases. The app’s primary aim is that it will save voters’ time by eliminating the need to wait in long queues, he said.
Replying to a question, he said the law enforcement agencies have so far seized over Rs 27 crore worth of drugs, liquor and unaccounted-for cash in Haryana since the MCC came into effect.