Malls, metro stations now sites to enroll young voters

The Delhi Election Commission, as part of its campaign to get more young people to vote, will reach out to people visiting malls and metro stations, Chief Nodal Officer Ankur Garg of the Delhi Election Commission said Sunday.

"Shopping malls, metro stations and college premises will be the new locations for the voting awareness campaign to woo youngsters to come ahead and vote," Garg said, while speaking at a voting right awareness event organised by the District Election Office(East) at the premises of V3S shopping mall in East Delhi.

"We have witnessed a huge rise in youth enrollment in the electoral list, because of our campaign. The number of young voters has increased from 15,000 during the last polls to 100,000 today," Garg said.

He said credit also goes to the non-governmental organisations who have played an important role in providing special counselling and spreading awareness among the students about voting rights.

"Our electoral officers won't stop here. To take the campaign further, we have thought of organising such campaigns at metro stations and shopping malls, which basically is flocked by youngsters," he said.

"We are also focusing on the large section of youngsters who visit social networking sites to give their opinion on the poor performance of the government. We just want to tell them that if they want a change in the regime, it can be done only by voting and not just commenting on matters using networking," Garg said.