By- Banibrata Datta, Editor Vande Mataram Newspaper
National Voter’s Day was gracefully celebrated today across the state through different programs. The main programme of the 13th National Voter’s Day was organized at Rabindra Bhawan. This year’s theme is ‘Nothing Like Voting, I Vote for Sure’.
The Programme was inaugurated by Chief Secretary J. K. Sinha. EPIC cards were distributed and Election Awareness Calendar was published in the programme today. Besides, officers were felicitated for carrying out special responsibilities, those related to the forming committee were felicitated, open quiz competition was conducted and many a transparent way to strengthen the country’s democracy. There may be differences of opinion.
The Chief Secretary while emphasizing the importance of observing National Voter’s Day said, it is essential that every voter participates in democracy but a difference of heart is not apt. There will be a lot number of people of different sectors arriving during the voting process including officials from outside the state and the media. In this regard, the state will gain a good name in future if the election is conducted in a peaceful manner in front of them.
Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Gitte in the programme said, voters are the backbone of the voting process. Democracy will be strengthened when the voters will be aware of their rights. There are 94 crore voters in our country. 67% voting was reported in the last Lok Sabha election.
The Election Commission of India aims for inclusive participation of the voters in any election. There is a different reputation for India’s voting process in the world. 17 countries have recently undergone training on managing the voting process from the Election Commission of India through workshops. He also said, various steps have been taken to register the names and ensure a huge number of participants from women, third genders, those above 80 years of age and Divyangjans.
These include increasing voting centres, ramps for Divyangjans at the voting centres, arrangement of wheelchairs, and voting from home for those above 80 years of age. Applications for enlisting names in the voter list were collected from 17 thousand 17 plus youths of the state. So far, 619 complaints have been received through c-Vigil App, among which 480 complaints have been resolved.
The Chief Electoral Officer also said, voters can easily find information about various aspects of the election candidates through Know Your Candidate App. There are 50 to 55 thousand people of the state-appointed on election duty. Each of them will have to take a vital role to ensure a peaceful election.
He also said, the Election Commission gives equal importance to every political party. Pre-election violence has been reduced to 50% till now compared to past elections in the state. He hoped for a peaceful election which will in future create opportunities for investment, industry and tourism in the state.
State Election Commissioner M. L. Dey also spoke on the occasion. A vote of Thanks was delivered by West Tripura District Magistrate & Collector Debapriya Bardhan. National-level swimmer Samir Barman was also present in the programme.
