SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) Maneesh Garg on Wednesday said that target of 6 per cent increase in polling was achieved in 277 polling stations, which had witnessed low voter participation earlier.
He said that for this mission-277 campaign was launched by State Election Department for assembly elections under UTSAV (Universal Transparent election through Systemic Awareness of Voters) and SVEEP activities. He said that after identification of these polling stations, a detailed analysis was done to find out the reasons for low voting in these polling stations.
CEO said that voter turnout considerably increased in the targeted polling stations. He said that 198 polling stations out of 277 polling stations registered higher voter participation, 57 polling stations registered more than 10 per cent increase, while 10 polling stations registered 20 per cent increase. Similarly, two polling stations registered more than 30 per cent increase and two polling stations witnessed improvement of 40 percent, while four polling stations came up by 50 per cent increase. An overall 6 per cent increase was registered in these 277 polling stations.
He said that some of the reasons that emerged were the migratory population, boycott owing to local issues, youth, urban apathy and, voter apathy, especially among central government employees belonging to other states. Besides, electors working in other states, adverse weather conditions, wedding season and harvesting season during the elections were few other reasons.
Taking all these measures into considerations, an array of targeted interventions, including awareness programmes, regular meetings at various levels, personal visits of District Election Officers/Returning Officers/ Senior officers/Block level officers, pro-active election literacy clubs, chunav pathshala activities, interventions by booth awareness groups and mass mobilization activities were undertaken, he said.
He said that for this mission-277 campaign was launched by State Election Department for assembly elections under UTSAV (Universal Transparent election through Systemic Awareness of Voters) and SVEEP activities. He said that after identification of these polling stations, a detailed analysis was done to find out the reasons for low voting in these polling stations.
CEO said that voter turnout considerably increased in the targeted polling stations. He said that 198 polling stations out of 277 polling stations registered higher voter participation, 57 polling stations registered more than 10 per cent increase, while 10 polling stations registered 20 per cent increase. Similarly, two polling stations registered more than 30 per cent increase and two polling stations witnessed improvement of 40 percent, while four polling stations came up by 50 per cent increase. An overall 6 per cent increase was registered in these 277 polling stations.
He said that some of the reasons that emerged were the migratory population, boycott owing to local issues, youth, urban apathy and, voter apathy, especially among central government employees belonging to other states. Besides, electors working in other states, adverse weather conditions, wedding season and harvesting season during the elections were few other reasons.
Taking all these measures into considerations, an array of targeted interventions, including awareness programmes, regular meetings at various levels, personal visits of District Election Officers/Returning Officers/ Senior officers/Block level officers, pro-active election literacy clubs, chunav pathshala activities, interventions by booth awareness groups and mass mobilization activities were undertaken, he said.
