Jamshedpur : East Singhbhum district administration recently organised a meeting with representatives of all city-based private educational institutions at the district collectorate where it was decided that administration will be taking help of schools.
It will be giving election stickers to the schools and the school authorities should ensure that all students paste it on their diaries.
Now the administration has also approached the colleges of Kolhan University.
East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal said that the innovative method of reaching out to voters will be done through the Systematic Voters� Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme of the Election Commission of India. Apart from stickers, district administration also requested school and college representatives to send e-mails to parents of each of the students about voting day and time. �We also plan to send bulk SMS through government agencies encouraging voters to cast their votes,� said Kaushal.
Campaigning by the district administration had led voting percentage of urban assembly constituencies of Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West increasing sharply in the 2014 general elections.
While Jamshedpur East had a voter�s turnout at 61.47 percent, Jamshedpur West had 57.98 percent. Rural constituencies like Bahargora (75.56 percent), Ghatshila (67.25 percent), Potka (69.47 percent) and Jugsalai (70.31 percent) showed more higher voting percentage.
Prior to 2014 general elections, the voting percentage in urban areas has been between 30-50 percent in the last few assembly and general elections while it touched 60 percent in the rural areas.
Meanwhile, the SDO office along with the Kolhan University has sent notices to the colleges asking them to organise activities which will motivate students to go and vote for their candidates at the upcoming election. The voting in Jamshedpur is scheduled on Dec 2.
The letter received by colleges from the SDO office asks colleges to organise essay competition and a poetry competition to promote awareness among voters in colleges.
The Karim City College too has planned an essay writing competition and a poetry writing competition. Students can register themselves and participate in the competition.
” The step has been taken based on the district administration’s directive to the college. The activities will make young voters enthusiastic about voting,” said Yahiya Ibrahim, the cultural co-ordinator and a faculty member of the college.
The Graduate School College for Women have not planned anything but they welcome organisations to promote voting awareness campaign in their campus. � There have been some newspaper organisations who have come. We have got about 5000 young voters in campus,” said Usha Shukla, principal, Graduate School College for Women.