Jingles on door-to-door waste collection vehicles to motivate Karnal electorate

Parveen Arora

Karnal, April 10

Aimed at increasing the voter turnout in the upcoming Lok Sabha and Karnal Assembly byelections, the district administration has begun involving door-to-door garbage collection vehicles, which are equipped with audio systems.

Catchy jingles are being played on speakers mounted on these vehicles, motivating people to cast their vote on May 25. The authorities believe that this would encourage voters to exercise their franchise and help in increasing voter turnout.

Karnal recorded a 68.54 per cent voter turnout in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019, a decline of 3.56 per cent from 70.10 per cent in 2014. The Karnal Assembly segment witnessed 52.29 per cent voter turnout in 2019.

A fleet of 78 vehicles is used in waste collection activities here, and these are catching the attention of the people with jingles being played on them.

“Our target is to spread awareness among people to cast their vote, for which we have initiated several steps. Playing jingles is among one of them. Each vehicle has been equipped with recorded jingles, which are being played across the residential areas to reach out to the maximum people,” said Uttam Singh, Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer. “We appeal to the people to cast their vote,” he added.

Anubhav Mehta, SDM-cum-Returning Officer for the Karnal Assembly byelection, stressed the importance of voter awareness initiatives and said since these vehicles plyed in the interior lanes of the city as well as the villages, the plan would help in spreading awareness.

Apart from playing songs of ‘Swachh Bharat’, jingles to educate voters would be played on these vehicles, said Dheeraj Kumar, Additional Commissioner (AC), Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC).

Mehta said the purpose was to educate the voters to participate in the festival of democracy, which would take place on May 25 when the Karnal Lok Sabha and Karnal Assembly segments would witness elections.

Like the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ the KMC had started a dedicated voter awareness campaign, the ‘Matdan Bharat Mission’, by involving 22 health sanitary inspectors and three motivators who were already involved in door-to-door visits to spread awareness about segregation of waste.

These dedicated teams, each comprising four to five members, were deployed across all 20 wards of Karnal, actively encouraging people to cast their vote. They carried banners displaying the message that it was important for voters to exercise their franchise, and visited each and every household, he added.

Dedicated teams working

• The civic body has started a dedicated voter awareness campaign, ‘Matdan Bharat Mission’, by involving 22 health sanitary inspectors and three motivators who are already involved in door-to-door visit to spread awareness about segregation of waste
• These dedicated teams, each comprising four to five members, are deployed across all 20 wards of Karnal, actively encouraging people to cast their vote
• They carry banners displaying the message that it is important for voters to exercise their franchise by visiting each and every household

To reach out to maximum people

Each vehicle has been equipped with recorded jingles, which are being played across the residential areas to reach out to maximum people. We appeal to the people to cast their vote. — Uttam Singh, Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer