CHANDIGARH : To encourage more people to vote in the state Assembly election slated for October 15, the Haryana Election Department has decided to reach out to voters through their children. They will hand out letters and invitation cards to schoolchildren who will be asked to hand these over to their parents.
There are total of 1.62 crore voters in the state. Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Walgad said, “The letter would be addressed to the head of the family, urging him to vote along with all family members. This will be given to schoolchildren and they will be instructed to ask their parents and family members to vote. One cannot say no to one’s own child.”
“Besides the invite, the envelope would also contain voter slips of the entire family. Along with letters, we plan to also send invitation cards worded in a similar manner,” he added. The department has already sent the drafts for these letters and cards to the districts so that there they can start this initiative.
The electoral body is coming up with various initiatives to woo voters. Hotels and restaurants will be offering discounts to those who vote and an SMS campaign along with advertisements through publicity vans will be started to educate voters. Around 500 model polling stations will be set-up where NCC students will facilitate voting.
“We also decided to tie up with hotels and restaurants to offer discounts to voters who exercise their franchise in these polls. This initiative is aimed at young voters who eat out,” said Walgad.
He said the department is planning to set up 500 model polling stations across the state where voters will be greeted by NCC Scouts and facilities such as clean drinking water, toilets will be provided for voters.
“The department also plans to tie-up with mobile operators to send SMSs to voters asking them to exercise their franchise in the elections. We have a base of about 32 lakh mobile numbers in the state,” he said.
He added the department has stationed mobile publicity vans in different districts to educate voters on how to use electronic voting machines.
An officer said, “We want people from Gurgaon and Faridabad to come out and vote as there is lesser voter turn-out in these areas of the state that fall in the National Capital Region. The public is quite politically aware in rural areas, which always have a high voter percentage than urban areas.” As many as 30,40,975 new voters, including 15,58,996 males and 14,81,979 females, will cast their votes in the coming assembly election. In all, 1,61,58,117 voters would cast their votes.
These include 87,08,830 males and 74,49,287 females. In the 2009 assembly polls, the total number of voters was 1,31,17,142 of which 71,49,834 were males and 59,67,308 females.
After the registration of voters in Haryana till July 31, 2014, the Faridabad district topped with 12,20,710 voters, (6,82,521 males and 5,38,189 females). Panchkula district has the minimum number of voters: Of the 3,48,969 voters, there are 1,85,837 males and 1,63,132 females.