SHILLONG, JAN 24: “Night of 1000 lights & Phawar Competition” might sound like a stage play, but this is one of the unique ways adopted by the East Khasi hills district election department to create awareness among the urban voters of the importance of casting their votes in the upcoming assembly elections.
With low turnout of voters in the urban areas compared to the rural areas in past elections, the East Khasi hills deputy commissioner, who is also the District Election Officer, Sanjay Goyal organized the competition as part of the National Voters Day to stress on the importance of exercising ones franchise during the elections.
The response was heartening as it saw active participation by residents of different localities of the city who came to U Soso Tham auditorium carrying traditional ‘Dongmusa’ and ‘Candles’ accompanied by drum beating as a symbolic of the 1000 lights celebration.
Goyal said, “The whole concept of the event is to ensure better participation from the people by encouraging them to come forward and exercise their franchise in the coming up elections.”
According to Goyal such unique event is being organized after having seen the less voters turn out in the past elections, especially in urban centric areas. He said, “There is less turn-out of voters in Urban areas compared to rural areas in the past.”
Goyal informed the event has been organized to make people realized the importance of being a “voter” which, he felt, should not be wasted. He said, “We are taking steps such as this by involving locality participation to motivate people and get better percentage of voters’ turnout in the forthcoming elections.
Speaking about the Phawar ( poetry)competition, he said, “The slogans derive from the competition will be used by the department during the SVEEP campaigns.”
The district election office will be organizing similar activities such as road shows all over the district to create mass awareness. Goyal hoped that such event will convey the message to the voters and they will come out in droves to exercise their franchise during the upcoming elections.
Goyal also informed that the National Voters Day, slated for January 25, will be celebrated at all the polling stations where booth level officers will be distributing voters’ identity card to newly enrolled voters and the youngest voters will also be felicitated. –By Our Reporter
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