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Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, May 15
To enhance the voting percentage, the district administration has printed invitations in the local dialect, making an appeal to voters to come out and exercise their franchise on May 19.
All booth-level officers have been directed to visit houses and hand over invitations. As many as 40,000 have been been printed.
An appeal on behalf of the district administration has been made through the invitations to encourage voters. Timings (from 7 am to 6 pm) have also been mentioned on these. Various identity cards like voter identity cards, smart cards, pension cards, passports, MGNREGA job cards, Aadhaar cards, health insurance smart cards and driving licences, have also been displayed to enable a voter to carry them as per his/her convenience.
Solan SDM Rohit Rathore said they were specially targeting low turnover booths, which included urban households, where a low voting trend had been witnessed in the last Lok Sabha poll.
Various low voter turnout booths have been identified, where special efforts are being made to enhance the voting percentage.
In the last Lok Sabha poll, some wards in Solan town had registered low voter turnout of 51.28 pc, 52.52 pc, 51.35 per cent, while some booths in rural areas like Binu had witnessed as much as 82.65 per cent polling.
The district administration has also roped in Sanjana Goyal, president, Indian Muscular Dystrophy Association, a national award winner and also a muscular dystrophy patient, to encourage voters.
In the last Lok Sabha poll, the state had witnessed 64.45 per cent polling, while the last Assembly elections in 2017 saw 75.57 per cent polling. Similarly, the polling percentage in the Lok Sabha poll in 2009 was merely 58.43 per cent, while in 2004, it was 59.34 per cent. In contrast, the state had witnessed 73.5 per cent votes in 2012 and 71.61 per cent in the 2007 Assembly poll.
Encouraging voters
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