|
| Let's Vote gathers momentum |
| B Krishna Mohan / Chennai/ Hyderabad Apr 10, 2009, 00:40 IST |
|
About 30 companies come together to create awareness on the need to vote.
Let’s Vote, a citizen campaign to bring awareness on the need to vote, would go on for the next two years with an aim to reach out to about 90 per cent of the corporate employees and their families.
The campaign is being carried out by a network of about 30 companies to get corporate employees enroll for the voter identity card and vote in the elections.
According to managing director of Nvidia India JA Chowdary, who is part of the campaign, there are about 1 million professionals working in IT and allied fields and a significant number of employees have confided that they do not vote. A majority of them have not even applied for the voter id card.
“We want people to stop complaining and start voting,” he said.
The campaign observed that just about three per cent of the people working in the corporate sector vote. Many said they feared the serpentine queues for voting. “When they can wait in the queue for a cinema, they can also spend some time to vote once in five years,” he said. The campaign also compared voting to due diligence that companies adopt to hire a candidate on their rolls.
As part of the initiative, a website letsvote.in has been launched, which explains why should one vote. Besides, half-marathons were organised in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam for registering the crowd as voters. Industries in Anantapur and Khammam districts of the state too have evinced interest in the campaign.
“The aim is to increase the voting percentage by at least 5 per cent in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Visakhapatnam and other cities in the next general elections. Let’s Vote is also conducting similar networks in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bangalore, which have a good number of IT companies,” Chowdary said.
Several IT companies have declared a holiday on the polling day to encourage voting. BPO companies, which run emergency operations have agreed to give three or four hours permission to enable the employees to cast their vote.
Hospitals, media, Income Tax office, software exporters association, management bodies among others have joined the campaign as part of their corporate social responsibility. So far, over 1,00,000 employees have enrolled as voters this year, he added.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
