‘Target to increase voter turnout by more than 84 per cent’: Rohan Kumar Jha

SILCHAR: Our goal is to surpass the previous average voter turnout of roughly 79 percent by increasing turnout by at least 84 percent. District election officer & Returning officer, Rohan Kumar Jha made this remark on the occasion of launching ceremony of theme song for Parliamentary elections on Saturday.

Officially unveiling several programmes on the occasion, District Commissioner and Returning Officer Rohan Kumar Jha said that in the last election in Cachar, the highest voters’ turnout was 85.63 percent in Katigorah constituency , the lowest was 74.03 percent in Lakhipur.  So this time  Lakhipur has been specially targeted so that the voting rate of this area can be increased. 

“Around 13.5 lakh voters will caste their valuable votes in the district this year, earlier it was 11 lakh,” DC Rohan Kumar Jha said.

 The District Election Officer also informed that voting will be done in 1551 booths in the Cachar district. Earlier the number of booths were around 1800. The number of booths has been reduced a lot this time due to withdrawal of Covid protocol.

DEO Rohan Kumar Jha further said that the votes of 2713 voters who are above 85 years of age and specially-abled in the district will be collected from their homes in two phases.  It is also a plan to increase the voting rate by the Election Commissioner, he added.

Two new areas Panchgram and Badarpur were also included in Silchar constituency in the upcoming parliamentary election.

On the day, as a part of the initiative of the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) Cell of the Cachar district administration, the theme song was launched. Mascot VIDYA (Voters Initiative for Democracy and Youth Awareness) and a selfie stand were unveiled. An election awareness vehicle of this year’s Lok Sabha elections was ceremonially flagged off by the DEO Rohan Kumar Jha for the purpose of increasing the voting rate and mass awareness for voting.

With a view to create awareness for preservation, sustaining ecological balance, prevent illegal poaching and pet trade of Hollock gibbons, an endangered species native to Northeast India, eastern Bangladesh, Myanmar, mostly found in Barak-Bhuban wildlife sanctuary and in Barail wildlife sanctuary, Cachar administration has chosen a replica of  Hillock gibbon as mascot VIDYA , a voter’s initiative for democracy and youth awareness for this year’s parliamentary election. The natural habitat of this animal is deep forest, but because of deforestation, they are forced to edges in close proximity to the human population.

Meanwhile, two ‘district icons’ of this year’s Lok Sabha elections, Assistant Professor , department of Visual Art of Assam University and a well-known columnist, Dr. Ganesh Nandi and specially-abled folk music artist Rudrani Das were also felicitated by the District Election Officer & Returning Officer, Rohan Kumar Jha.

A street play was also performed highlighting the issue of voting on April 26 spontaneously, without any inducement. Earlier , at a press conference held at the conference hall of DC’S office, Returning Officer Rohan Kumar Jha informed the journalists about various activities and initiatives taken by the Cachar district administration to create awareness among the public to increase the voting rate.  He also appealed  to all the adult voters of the district to exercise their rights to vote. District Development Commissioner Norsing Bey also gave a relevant speech on the occasion. The programme was also attended by the Additional District Commissioner, Yubaraj Borthakur, Antara Sen, Assistant Commissioner, Anjali Kumari and other officials and staff of the district administration, stated a press release.

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