With voter interest coming down in the first two phases of the  Lok Sabha elections in different parts of the country, Haryana has decided to take a new initiative and rope in musical bands to play election-theme songs for encouraging young voters to exercise their franchise. Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said these bands will encourage people to cast their vote on the day of polling and also promote awareness and education regarding the election.  Soon we will be doing the first band play, hopefully in Panchkula. The band will perform and election-theme music will be played, he said. Later, these bands will be engaged districts having a higher percentage of young voters, he said. Notably, 1,99,81,982 voters across the state are eligible to cast their votes when polling will be held on May 25 in 10 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state in the sixth phase of general elections. The number of voters in the 18 to 19 age group is over 3.65 lakh while the voters aged between 20 to 29 years are over 39 lakh. Agarwal said that this year, the Election Commission of India has made Chunav ka Parv – Desh ka Garv the slogan for Lok Sabha elections so that citizens participate enthusiastically in the elections. He appealed to the youth across the state, including those who will vote for the first time, saying that when the youth engage with the electoral process, they will understand the power of democracy and the importance of their vote. He said that the voter turnout in Haryana was recorded at 70 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, this time our goal is to take it to at least 75 per cent, he said. Notably, several unique initiatives have been undertaken by the state election department, including launching the Voters- in-Queue app, sending polling invitations to voters akin to wedding invitations, and setting up 31 polling booths in the multi-storey societies of Gurugram. Through the Voters-in-Queue app the voters can obtain information about the queue at polling centres from the comfort of their homes and can go to vote as the crowd decreases. The apps primary advantage is that it will save voters time by eliminating the need to wait in long queues, he said. Agarwal said voter awareness campaigns are also being carried out to increase voter turnout. I am hopeful that Haryana will register record polling this time, he said. Nearly 20,000 polling stations will be set up by the time polling is held, which will be 600-700 more than last time, he said. The CEO said the law enforcement agencies have so far seized over Rs 27 crore worth of drugs, liquor and unaccounted-for cash in Haryana since the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the Lok Sabha elections came into effect. On the MCC, he said through the c-VIGIL mobile app citizens are keeping a close eye on any poll code violations. As soon as people receive information about violations of the MCC, they send their complaints to the Election Commission. These complaints are resolved within 100 minutes, he said. It is the result of citizens vigilance that so far over 2800 complaints have been received in Haryana, of which 2400 were found correct and immediate action was taken, he said. To ensure smooth conduct of polls, several meetings with police departments related to security related arrangements have been held, he said. 

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