The voting percentage in urban pockets is always much lower when compared to rural areas, and to bridge this gap, the district administration on Wednesday launched an awareness programme involving high school students and teachers.
A group of 20 high school students from the Rajendra Municipal High School in Anantapur were invited to a district-level meeting of the officials on the arrangements for the municipal elections on Wednesday.
Officials explained to the students about the process of municipal polls, and their involvement was sought as a catalyst to improve the turnout of voters in the urban pockets and bring it closer to those witnessed in panchayat elections (82% in Anantapur district).
“Almost every school is a polling booth and usually, the neighbourhood children study in that school, hence teachers must take up a door-to-door campaign from March 6 to 9 to prevail upon the voters to not waste their franchise,” Mr. Chandrudu said. He asked the students to take a selfie with their parents’ inked fingers to show that they were successful in convincing their parents.
