In a bid to spread awareness about the election process and encourage voters to exercise their franchise, the Election Commission of India (ECI) will provide resolution letters to schools in Jharkhand — to be signed by the parents of enrolled students and submitted to the concerned school, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinay Kumar Choubey said on Thursday.
The initiative is expected to spread awareness among parents and encourage them to vote, added Choubey. “The resolution letters will also carry information about the election process and the facilities provided to voters,” Choubey said during a meeting with representatives of private schools and District Education Officers on Thursday.
Addressing the principals and representatives of different schools, Choubey said that every school must also organize programmes in their respective campuses for spreading awareness about the importance of elections among students.
Earlier in the day, Choubey met representatives of colleges in Jharkhand and asked them to play an active role in ensuring maximum participation of voters in the upcoming Assembly elections here.
Choubey said that the ECI will award the campus ambassador who ensures maximum number of downloads of cVigil App – available on Play Store.
cVigil, which stands for citizen’s vigil, was first usedduring the Assembly Elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan,Telangana and Mizoram in 2018. Commoners can download the app from Google Play Store and Apple Store.
Through this app, one can send video recordings or pictures as evidence for their complaint. The ECI claims that all complaints are to be addressed within 100 minutes.
Around four campus ambassadors have been selected from each college for enthusing fellow students to cast their votes.
They have also been entrusted with the work of spreading awareness among college staff and locals living in the vicinity of their institution. “Educational institutions can play a pivotal role in encouraging people to cast votes. Today, more than 50 per cent voters are youth,” said Choubey.
Elections for the 81 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand will begin on November 30 and end on December 20.
The final counting will be done on December 23 and the results will be declared on the same day.
According to figures with the ECI, at least 67 of the 81 constituencies here are LeftWing Extremism affected.
Central forces and local police will be deployed insufficient numbers across all the constituencies to maintain law and order andensure peaceful polls in Jharkhand, the ECI has said.
