MARGAO
Election Commission of India’s Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) seems to have caught the attention of various group of voters, many of whom were in the past not enrolled on the electoral list.
Name them and the SVEEP programme led Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) in Salcete block to visit the orphanages, old age homes, educational institutions et al in the taluka as part of the ongoing month-long special summary revision of photo electoral rolls. While many first time voters, including students, registered themselves online, there were many others, including the senior citizens housed in the old age homes, who filled up forms for their registration on the photo electoral roll.
Says Joao B Fernandes, Salcete Mamlatdar and AERO, Fatorda constituency: “I along with my team visited Institute of Provedoria, the Orphanage at Pajifond, Don Bosco College, Chowgule College, ITI.
Borda and Government College of Commerce, Borda and explained them to register themselves as voters via online using www.nvsp.in website. “We received positive response from the voters”.
At the old age home run by the Provedoria, opposite the Hospicio hospital, the election team distributed forms to the elders, many of whom had in the past not got their names registered on the rolls. “We have told the Director of the institute to fill up the forms and return them to the office before the summary revision ends on October 31,” Joao said.
Similarly, the election team came across around 5-6 youngsters at the Pajifond orphanage who were not registered on the photo electoral rolls.
Joao said the SVEEP programme does not require the voters, including first time voters such as students to visit the AERO office for registration on the photo electoral rolls. “During our programme, we passed on the message to the students and the nodal officers of the colleges and higher secondary schools to do online registration,” he added.
Joao’s counterpart, Rosario Fernandes, who is an AERO for the Assembly constituencies of Margao, Curtorim and Benaulim in Salcete taluka said the election officials fanned out to various institutes including the orphanage at Colva, the institute at Cavelossim, besides the educational institutions falling in these three constituencies. “Our agenda was not only to get new voters registered on the photo electoral rolls, but motivate the registered voters to exercise their voting right in the elections. We had an interaction with the senior citizens group at the Camurlim village panchayat, primarily to motivate the voters to come out and vote in the elections,” Rosario said.
“My team also visited a flat at Margao based on information that two persons, who are visually impaired, were staying there. Similarly, we visited a differently abled student at Raia. In both these instances, these persons had registered themselves on the electoral roll,” Rosario added.
The Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme of Election Commission of India is a landmark programme to inform, educate, motivate and facilitate voters and in turn make Indian democracy more participative and meaningful.
In this programme, every aspect of the election process is simulated to ensure enhanced voters’ participation in the polling. It is the impact of this programme that during last few years, the voter registration has continuously gone up and high voter turnout with greater participation from youth and women has become possible.
