BHUBANESWAR: To encourage the electorate to exercise their franchise during ongoing polls, The New Indian Express (TNIE) conducted a voters’ run in the City which drew enthusiastic response on Saturday.Internationally-acclaimed sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik flagged off the run from Kalinga Hospital Square to Chandrasekharpur BDA Colony, which saw participation of college students and staff of TNIE. The participants carried interesting placards on the theme.
“Such a campaign is very important as it sends the right message to people about their voting rights and duties in the democratic set up. Kudos to Express for such a step,” said Patnaik, who has been spreading awareness about voting through his sand sculptures in Puri.
The voters’ run passed near polling station no 77/BDA Chandrasekharpur Colony-2 where voter turnout was the lowest in 2014. A vehicle mounted with a float, which has been going around the Capital spreading awareness, accompanied the participants during the event.Later Patnaik tweeted: “I flagged off the Voters’ Awareness Run organized by The New Indian Express in Bhubaneswar”. He emphasized on the importance of voting by using hashtags like #BeCounted and #IDecide. His tweet drew huge likes on the micro-blogging site.
During the voters awareness exercise, volunteers will also conduct door-to-door campaign on voter literacy in the area while posters have been put up across the city.As part of its Voters’ Awareness campaign, The Express has been conducting a series of on-ground activities across the States. The campaign is being carried under Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP).In Odisha, TNIE had also carried out a similar campaign at Sambalpur Assembly segment where voter turnout was low in the last election.