Stepping up awareness programmes to achieve 100% polling in the April 18 elections, District Election Officer (DEO) and Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao launched series of voters’ awareness programmes and Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) activities at the State Bank of India’s main branch here on Friday.
After distributing pamphlets, displaying posters released by the Election Commission of India (ECI), taking out rallies, showcasing sand sculptures and organising cultural programmes, the office of DEO launched the awareness programmes at public gathering places and chose the SBI main branch to spread the awareness.
Stating that people should take pride in voting, Mr. Rao exhorted all the eligible voters to exercise their franchise. He administered pledge to the general public and those who visited the bank and ATM to ensure 100% voting. Mr. Rao distributed pamphlets and pasted posters stating ‘vote is not for sale’.
Later, Mr. Rao told reporters that all the 183 bank branches and 210 ATM centres would be covered in the awareness programmes. Voters’ awareness posters would be displayed in all these branches and centres to encourage people to take part in the democratic process.
He said a total of 1,916 polling stations for the Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency have been made ready and provided with all basic facilities, he said. Ramps and other facilities have been made for the differently abled people to visit the polling stations and cast their votes without any difficulty.
After allotting Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines to the polling booths through computer randomisation, the more than 7,000 polling staff members have also been allotted to the polling stations through randomisation, he said.
The District Contact Centre has so far received 2,764 election related calls and necessary actions on the calls had been initiated, he said. The flying squads and state surveillance teams have so far seized ₹3.09 crore of unaccounted money after making 243 interventions. Lead bank officers A. Sankaran, V. Karthikeyan and Municipal Commissioner K. Subbiah were present.
