“Voter Awareness programme Jointly organised by National Law University Odisha ? Cuttack Municipal Corporation on November 20, 2023”

National Law University Odisha in joint collaboration with Cuttack Municipal Corporation organized a Voters Awareness Programme on November 20, 2023 at 11.30 A.M in the Second Floor Conference Room, Administrative Block of NLUO.?Shri Narahari Sethy, OAS(SAG), Collector & District Magistrate, Cuttack joined as the Chief Guest for the programme, other distinguished dignitaries present in the programme are Prof. (Dr.) Rangin Pallav Tripathy, Professor of Law and Registrar,NLUO, Ms. Anita Patra, Joint Commissioner, Cuttack Municipal Corporation, Ms. Krishna Padhi, AERO, Cuttack. The programme was attended by the staff of NLUO and few teacher representatives of local election office.

Shri Narahari Sethy, Collector & District Magistrate, Cuttack started the programme with his key note address about the Voters awareness. He said that this is a flagship programme of Eelection Commission of India to Increase participation of people specially youth in voting process in all over India. He said that this programme is being organized in most of the colleges in the district to make create awareness among the eligible youth voters. He talked about why it is important to vote in the Indian democracy. He said that all citizens should be aware about their voting rights and they should properly exercise the rights being a responsible voter to choose the perfect representatives who could lead the Government. All citizens should realize the importance of voting and they also should encourage all eligible voters to register and vote. ?/p>

Ms. Anita Patra,Joint Commissioner, Cuttack Municipal Corporation said that the followings are the objective of this Voters awareness campaign

• To create awareness among the youth and eligible voters to register and vote
• To creating awareness among the people/public/voter regarding the importance of the three-tier local electoral system
• To enhance people’s participation in the voting system
• To create awareness to select effective people centric leaders
• To ensure smooth implementation/execution of our planned activities

She said that not only you should vote but you as a responsible citizen should also create awareness in your family and in the society that you live to register and to vote. She specially emphasized to motivate the young generation who are eligible to vote as per the Indian Constitution should register themselves as voters and should exercise their voting rights. She said that “you should make it in your mind that being an Indian national it is crucial and it’s your responsibility to vote and make others motivated to vote”. ?he said that who have attained the age of 18 and are eligible voters should ensure by visiting the local representatives of election office that their name is there in the voters list. If their name is not showing up in the list, they should immediately bring this to the knowledge of the representative and make an inclusion following the process.

Ms. Krishna Padhi, AERO, Cuttack add on to the discussion by informing about the initiative of Election Commission of India by designing a Mobile Application for developing a culture of avid electoral engagement and making informed and ethical ballot decisions among citizens of the country. The app aims to provide a single point of service and information delivery to voters across the country. The eligible voters should download the Voter Helpline App from Google play store and should use this for all kind of service related to voting.

Both of them also addressed many concerns of the NLUO employees relating to the voting process.

The programme dissolved with a vote of thanks by Dr. Subhangini Singh, Assistant Professor of Political Science, she also stressed upon the importance of this Voters awareness programme to aware voters about their voting rights and also to motivate the youths and students to register who are eligible to vote and to exercise their voting rights.

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