Taking cue from the Uttar Pradesh government’s successful campaign ‘Do minute vote ke liye’ to enlist voters and bring them to the polling booth, the district administration here is on the verge of launching a campaign under the SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) programme.
The idea is to enhance the urban poll percentage to 85 per cent and rural to 90, and the programme is all set to go off the drawing board with the announcement of the main slogan by the District Collector on April 9. For a change, it will not be a stereotyped ‘sarkari’ sort of campaign.
It will be innovative, involving youth and will have components such as flash mob, witty skits and catchy slogan splash.
In 2009, the three urban Assembly constituencies of Vijayawada (East, West and Central) and Penamaluru recorded a voter turnout of below 75 per cent. The idea of this exercise is to encourage 18-plus voters to register themselves as voters and bring every eligible person to the polling booth.
“The total number of electorate in Krishna district is nearly 49 lakh, of which 4 per cent is said to be in the 18-22 age bracket. So far 2 per cent of age group have registered and we hope that we shall achieve at least 3 per cent by April 9,” said Animal Husbandry Joint Director and SVEEP nodal officer T. Damodar Naidu.
“We are targeting all segments right from schoolchildren to pensioners and to college students,” he added.
Officials have designed a pledge, ‘Sankalp Patra’, and it will be distributed to 2.7 lakh schoolchildren, and they will be urged to take a pledge from their parents and eligible voters in their families to exercise their franchise.
Meanwhile, NSS programme officers will organise similar pledge drive among college students.
For employees and pensioners, officials are negotiating with banks for conducting a poster drive on office premises. Catchy slogans will be printed on bank challans to motivate voters.
The district administration is all set to start a poster campaign at important junctions and shopping malls. This apart, Srujaya Movement, the outsourced partners, will present skits and flash mobs at strategic locations.
