Election 2022: To increase turnout, Amritsar administration gets creative

Amritsar, February 10

In a first, various teams working with the District Election Office have prepared an elaborate data on the three categories of voters — first-time voters, elderly (above the age of 80) and People with Disabilities (PwDs) — under Project Sanmaan.

With the punchline ‘Aao Vote Paun Chaliye’ (Lets Vote), Project Sanmaan was launched by the district administration to encourage the passive group of voters to turn out in large numbers for voting on February 20. To ensure high turnout in this group, the team from the election office has mapped and documented data on the number of elderly voters (above age of 80 years), PwD voters and first-time voters, who will be paired together on the day of election.

The mapping has been done constituency wise and booth-level data has been prepared with a number of voters from the three categories.

DC Gurpreet Khaira had launched multiple SVEEP activities under Project Sanmaan, which is an attempt to pair young voters with the elderly and PwD voters. The new voters would take elderly and disabled people to polling stations to increase participation of the youth in the election. Khaira also launched scholarships, offers and perks for first-time voters under this project. He said 137 model polling booths and 13 women polling booths have been set up in the district, besides two polling booths for physically challenged voters.

According to the data, there are 21, 091 voters between the age of 18 and 19 years, 11,977 PwD voters and 40, 755 voters above the age of 80 in 11 constituencies. According to an official from the election office team, the mapping and pairing of new voters, PwDs and elderlies will be done at booth level by the Returning Officer. Further, first-time voters at booth level will be made aware of the facilities being provided by the administration to assist them in reaching the polling booths. Booth-level officers will be informing first-time voters about who they have been paired with from their area and how to assist them. The aim is to counter hesitation in first-time voters, accessibility issues for PwDs and dependence for elderlies with a single programme and increase voting percentage in the category.

All set for D-Day

• Various teams of the District Election Office have prepared an elaborate data on the three categories of voters — first-time voters, elderly (above the age of 80) and People with Disabilities (PwDs) — under Project Sanmaan
• The teams have mapped and documented data constituency wise on the number of elderly, PwDs and first-time voters, who will be paired together on the day of election
• The new voters will take the elderly and disabled people to polling stations. The aim is to counter hesitation in first-time voters, accessibility issues for PwDs and dependence for elderlies with a single programme and increase voting percentage in the category