Youth share vaults in city electorate

Hyderabad: District Election Officer and GHMC Commissioner Dana Kishore said that the number of young voters in Hyderabad city increased from 0.59 per cent to 1.44 per cent of total population in a short period of time, following special drives and frequent enrollment programmes. He was speaking to Uttar Pradesh Chief Election Officer and Joint CEO who visited the GHMC office to observe the election process.

Dana Kishore explained to them the election arrangements made in GHMC limits. While young men aged 18-19 years constitute 3.74 per cent of total population, only 2.74 per cent enrolled their names in the list, he said. This may be due to lack of interest them in the election process, he said. Due to voter awareness campaigns conducted at educational institutes since last three months, young voter per cent increased from 0.59 to 1.44 per cent, he said.

Although purification of voter list is a complex process, it was conducted with the help of revenue, municipal departments and BLOs. They corrected spelling errors in entries, address corrections, change of photographs, identifying multiple entries, and other issues, he said. During the correction process, there were instances of 40-50 voters on one house number. Awareness on voting machines was also conducted extensively. The new voting machines were also checked and were sent to the respective DRC centers after randomization process, he said.

The visiting dignitaries were informed that various committees had been set up to monitor the implementation of model code of conduct. About Rs 18.8 crore in cash and other items were seized in Hyderabad city, he said. City police commissioner Anajani Kumar said that 1290 polling centers were identified as critical and security was tightened at these centers. The law and order situation in the city is fully under control and central forces for conduct of elections would arrive shortly, he said. City Additional Police Commissioner DS Chouhan, GHMC Additional Commissioners Harichandana and Kennedy, Vigilance & Enforcement Director Vishwajit Kampati and others participated in the meeting. On this occasion, they took an oath to increase voting percentage in the ensuing elections.