STATE TIMES NEWS
PUNE: A multimedia exhibition on the theme “Voter Registration – The First Step of Democracy” highlighting the significance of participating in the electoral process as a voter and showcasing the grandeur of Indian elections, was inaugurated by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey at Savitribai Phule Pune University in Maharashtra on Wednesday.
The three-day exhibition organized by the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC) under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in association with the District Election Officer, Pune, is a voter awareness building exercise being undertaken on the occasion of nation-wide launch of Special Summary Revision 2023 today.
The DEO Pune has also set up special registration camps to enroll young voter at the exhibition venue.
The topic of Indian Elections and Voters Registration have been highlighted through CBC’s Virtual Reality kiosks displaying polling stations, Flip book on Indian Election, an Augmented Reality touch wall, Digital display of SSR 2023 forms and sound show on election stories, apart from a separate section on ECI new initiatives, display of SVEEP scopes and a wall on Indian Democracy. Also, the song and drama artistes of CBC put up colourful performances on ECI theme of “No Voter To Be Left Behind”. Rajiv Kumar praised CBC for the colourful exhibition mounted up by them. He stated that even in this age of social media, CBC outreach activities are an extremely powerful medium of communication.
The CEC also stated that CBC exhibitions and folk performances can always be useful for Election Commission in their voter awareness campaigns. In his message to the youth of the country, the CEC urged them to become voters as it is critical for a democracy.
“Look at the demography of this country. Look at this huge country in which we believe in accommodation, we believe in discussion, we believe in resolving all our issues through participative elections. And that is possible only when we vote”. Power also transits through the tremendous force of the ballot seamlessly, he added. Election gives us continuity of the system and the resilience which the youth and society has, he said.
Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey said that Pune is a cultural centre of India and Pune University has a rich history associated with names of luminaries like Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Hence the Election Commission decided the start the voter awareness campaign on the launch of SSR 2023 from Pune.
Pandey stated that India is the biggest democracy having a demography which is bigger than the whole of Europe, North and South America.
He added that a democracy is strengthened when all eligible voters are registered, voters can exercise their franchise fearlessly and elections are conducted in a free and fair manner. He informed that at the time of independence there was only around 16 percent literacy in the country, yet people went to vote. CBC’s Additional Director General Ranjana Dev Sarmah delivered the welcome address.
DVDs of “First Ink”, the award winning docu-film produced in-house by Films Division was presented to the CEC by the director K.S. Shridhar. The film is on the life of Late S. S. Negi, first voter from Himachal Pradesh, who recently passed away. It is being showcased at the multi-media exhibition in Pune as a tribute to Late Shri Negi.
The CEC and EC took a round of the displays and also interacted with the young voters present on the occasion, to motivate them to get registered as voters and participate in the electoral process. Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra Shri Srikant Deshpande and District Election Officer, Pune Dr. Rajesh Deshmukh were also present on the occasion. Savitribai Phule Pune University’s VC Prof. (Dr.) Kalbhari Kale was also present amongst the dignitaries.