Widows of martyrs invited to poll booths to exercise franchise

Deepender Deswal

Bhiwani, April 23

To motivate the electorate to participate in the voting exercise, the Bhiwani administration embarked on the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) drive in the Tosham subdivision of the district.

The SVEEP team headed by the Assistant Election Officer (AEO)-cum-SDM Tosham Manoj Kumar Dalal organised an event at Sandwa village and extended printed invitations to three women, who were widows of the martyred soldiers residing in the village, to visit the polling booths and cast their vote.

The polling is scheduled on May 25 in Haryana in the sixth phase of the polling in the ongoing general elections.

The Tosham SDM, along with SVEEP team, went to Government Senior Secondary School at Sandwa village to serve the invitation letters to the three women. The SDM said the members of the SVEEP team would visit all villages in the Tosham subdivision to give the invitation letters to the widows of the martyrs living in the area.

Recently, in Miran of the Bhiwani district, the SDM rode a camel cart wearing a turban as the members of the SVEEP team sang folk songs to motivate the voters. The videos have gone viral on social media.

Virender Sandwa, a member of the SVEEP team, said they had been organising the activities to encourage the people to participate in the electoral exercise as it was not only a right but also a duty of every citizen. Sandwa said there were three women who had lost their husbands while defending the borders of the country fighting the enemy. “This region has a special charm for the armed forces. There are many youth serving in the Army and para military forces from the villages in the Tosham subdivision”, he said. The women of the village, Dhanpati Devi, Kamala Devi and Shanti Devi were handed over the invitations by the SDM at a function today. The Block Education Officer, Vijay Kumar Sangwan, Principal Chandra Shekhar Mahata, besides others, including Dr Karambir, Pawan Kumar Dabla, Naresh Kumar, Seema, Sudesh Kumari, Trilok Chand, Surender Singh and others were present on the occasion.