STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A Run for Democracy was organised by the District Election Officer Jammu on Sunday for promoting voters awareness and encouraging people to vote on December 2014 for the Assembly Election
The run saw participation of over 3,000 people from all walks of the life including various schools, colleges, senior citizens, officers and officials from District Administration. The run was flagged off from Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Satwari and concluded at Mini Stadium Parade Ground Jammu covering around 6 Kms. Before flag off a motivating street play was performed by famous theatre group Rangyug at Higher Secondary School Satwari, which got lot of appreciation by the participants.
A function was organised at Parade Ground where famous theatre group Natrang performed its play on voter awareness “Loktantra Ka Mantra’ depicting importance of every vote and repercussion of non participation of voters in electoral process.
Avny Lavassa welcomed the gathering and encouraged the voters to vote on 20th December 2014. Jammu’s popular radio channel Big FM 92.7 who were radio partner of the event also kept the audience engaged in democracy quiz, keeping the atmosphere lively. District Election Officer Ajeet Kumar Sahu appealed to the participants to cast their vote and spread the message of importance of voting in election in order to strengthen our democracy.
The winners of the Run for Democracy were Naresh Kumar in the men’s category and Mandeep Kour in the women’s category. The winners got attractive prizes from Kapson and HDFC Bank and special prizes were given to senior citizens and best juniors runners.
The prizes were distributed by Ajeet Kumar Sahu and Kiran Wattal, Commissioner, Jammu Municipal Corporation. The Parade Ground was decorated posters by HDFC bank, Vodafone Kapson and Axis bank who were sponsors of the event promoting democracy, nation building and the right to vote. List of winners in Men’s category: Naresh Kumar, Balwinder Singh, Inderpal Singh, Zaffar ali, Lovejeet Singh, Mehraj Din, Lundup Gorja and in women’s category: Mandeep Kour, Anjali Choudhary, Narmita Katoch, Avny Lavassa, Kusum Chib and under Special Category winners are Amarjeet Singh, Sangeet Grashyan, Satish Kumar, Dr Indu Bhushan and Ashwani Kumar Gupta.
All participants also took pledge to vote for their conscience and utilise their right to vote properly. A signature campaign was also organised at Parade Ground in which large number of people participated.
The “Democracy Van” was also running on the road as well as on Parade Ground to attract people to check their names in voter list. On spot registration facility was also provided for new voters. Lot of enthusiasm was seen in the youth and all the participants. They were highly motivated and showed desire to take part in the festival of democracy and encourage others also to take part in it. This event was one of the mega events planned under “Wake Up Jammu” campaign. Many more such events shall be organised at local level by the Returning Officers.
Rjs of Big FM Rj Juhi, Rj Manas and RJ Sarang kept the audience captive during the show. Others who were present on the occasion were Uttam Chand, SSP Jammu, Mohan Lal SSP Traffic, G.N Balwan, Additional District Development Commissioner, Jammu, Executive Director ICCR Balwant Thakur, representatives of all sponsors and many prominent citizens who all appreciated the efforts of district administration for this event.
Voter awareness exhibition by DAVP was also display at the ground which was inaugurated after the run. The exhibition of DAVP was on voter awareness and education.
