Punjab: Amritsar district has secured first position in the entire state for the second consecutive time in the sweep activities being conducted to ensure voter participation in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In the list released on Saturday by the Chief Election Office (CEO) of Punjab, Ludhiana district has been ranked second and Patiala has been ranked third. Even special mention has been made of the special activity organized by Hoshiarpur district at bus stand and railway station and by Malerkotla district on the occasion of Eid.
District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, Ghanshyam Thori said, “I received a list from the CEO, Punjab today and it is a matter of pride for Amritsar district which stood first for the second consecutive time. CEO, Punjab has made it mandatory for each district to submit a fortnightly report of various sweep activities to the head office. Ranking of these districts is being done after evaluating the reports received from all the districts and social media index. Amritsar district has got the first position in the sweep activities organized first from 16 to 31 March and now from 1 to 15 April.
Nikas Kumar, Chairman of the SVEEP Core Committee and Additional Deputy Commissioner (Urban Development), said, “The Election Commission of India has given detailed instructions to continuously conduct SVEEP activities to motivate the voters to increase the voting percentage in the elections. Following this, a district level voter turnout plan was prepared and according to it, activities are being conducted in all the assembly constituencies of the district. Additionally, mega events are organized at Attari Border, Heritage Street and Guru Nanak Dev University.
Recently a voter awareness march was organized by the District Election Office in which all the transgenders of Amritsar district participated. “The district administration has set up a district-level sweep cell, where all the activities are being planned and monitored. Also, social media is the most popular method of information exchange and can play an important role in ongoing voter awareness campaigns.
SVEEP activities across the district are being continuously shared on various social media platforms of the District Election Office. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube have a good reach among the general public, especially the youth. Sandeep Kumar Sharma, Associate Professor of DAV College and in-charge of the district level social media team, said that by using social media in election related work, any information can be conveyed to the voters in a very short time.
