Summary:
Though the turnout increased from just 53% in 2009, but it fell short of the national average of 66.44%. Therefore, we have decided to arrange palanquins for the physically disabled and pregnant women,” said chief electoral officer Saujanya Jawalkar.Meanwhile, in order to spread awareness among the voters, the Tehri Garhwal administration has printed more than 30,000 invitation cards to encourage people to vote.“These cards will be addressed to rural voters urging them to come out and vote,” said an official.The administration has also asked school students to write letters to their parents to spread awareness about voting. Dehradun: To improve this year’s voter’s turnout for the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission (EC) has come up with some creative ways to grab people’s attention, especially in the hills, to encourage them to vote.Officials at the EC said they have made arrangements of special palanquins to ferry disabled persons as well as pregnant women to the polling booths.The officials further said there are a number of villages which are 10 to 15 kilometers away from the polling stations, and added that it was the administration’s responsibility to make polling booths accessible to the people.“The terrain of the state is such that many villagers have to travel dozens of kilometres to vote. Moreover, youngsters have been roped in to ink their bodies with temporary tattoos asking people to vote.Bageshwar district administration has also composed a special song sung by local artists to encourage people to vote.Jawalkar said that apart from these measures, the EC has also approached more than 18,000 hamlets in order to teach their residents how to use a VVPAT machine.These measures come in the wake of Uttarakhand recording a turnout of just 61.67% in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which was deemed worst among the Himalayan states (except J&K), and sixth worst in the country..