Ahead of LS polls, districts in Gujarat start voter awareness drives

As the Lok Sabha elections draw near, its time to remind voters about their ‘right to vote’. Several district collectorates are taking initiatives to spread the message, by printing it on milk pouches, electricity bills, government communications.

Taking forward the voter awareness campaign started by the Election Commission of India, Anand district collector’s office, for example, has decided to print one-liner messages urging voters to exercise their democratic rights, on Gujarat Electricity Board bills, milk pouches among other such communication.

Rahul Gupta, district collector, Anand claimed, “We are the pioneers in taking an initiative to print such messages in milk pouches, and other communication that can reach out to millions of people. We had done this during the last elections as well. This year, we have also started printing the messages on the print outs of land titles. Whenever, anyone approaches the district collectorate for a copy of the land title, he would get a print out with election messages written in Gujarati.”

Gupta feels that such initiatives go a long way in raising voter awareness, especially in the rural areas. During the March 9 drive for voter registration, Anand district saw around 14,000 new voter registrations, adding to its already enrolled 1.45 million registered voters. Mehsana district, on the other hand, has started printing such messages on food coupons at government ration shops.

“We have also asked the dairies in the region to start printing the one-liners on milk pouches that go to the consumer everyday. Apart from that, we are also printing these messages on the food coupons at ration shops,” said Rajkumar Beniwal, district collector of Mehsana.

Banaskantha district has decided to start printing these messages on all government communication. J G Hingarajiya, district collector, Banaskantha said, “Since last one week, we have started including these messages, at the footing of all government communication, whether external or internal communication. Meanwhile, we have also urged Banas Dairy, of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) to start printing on their milk pouches.” Banaskantha district saw an additional registration of 6,260 voters on March 9.