A meeting held at the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer, on Thursday, brought together media partners and officials of various government departments involved in SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation) programmes aimed at creating awareness among voters. About 25 select representatives of All India Radio, Doordarshan, Directorate of Field Publicity, State Information Department, and various government departments, including Agriculture and Health, took part. Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha presided over the meeting.
The objective was to usher in better understanding and coordination among the officials, K.S. Bevinamarada, officer on special duty (SVEEP), told The Hindu .
The issue of masking, removing government advertisements, hoardings and other publicity material and replacing them with slogans on voter awareness was deliberated upon in the meeting. Respective departments would bear the cost of such works.
Mr. Bevinamarada said that Deputy Commissioners in the districts, who are the District Election Officers, have been allocated Rs. 1 lakh each to carry out SVEEP activities. It could be putting up hoardings on election education, interpersonal communication, conducting mass media programmes and street plays. SVEEP activities should not be taken lightly as the Election Commission had deputed senior government officers as observers, Mr. Bevinamarada said.
As many as four observers have been deputed to districts with low voter turnout such as Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Dharwad, Belgaum, Bangalore North, South and Central constituencies. On whether SVEEP programmes had enhanced the voting percentage, he said it had helped increase participation to 75 per cent in the previous Assembly elections.
The main focus was on enrolling voters, particularly youth, in the voters list.
