Hubballi: The Koppal district administration has come up with a unique idea of utilizing youths’ craze for selfies. It has prepared photo frames called ‘Votergram’ and has placed them at different places like colleges, super bazars and other public places.It has appealed to citizens, particularly youths, to take selfies with these frames and keep them as their display pictures (DPs) on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and other social networks till May 12.Koppal ZP CEO Venkat Raja, who pitched the idea of ‘Votergram’, told TOI, “Today’s youths, even from rural areas, are well acquainted with social networks like Facebook and Whatsapp and they keep changing their DP often. They exchange pictures, videos and messages even on Instagram. Observing this trend, our district SVEEP committee planned to utilize it to create awareness about voting.”“We have prepared a frame named as `Votergram’ and it contains awareness slogans. In the first phase, we demonstrated it at the Koppal Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) and in government degree colleges about 10 days ago. As colleges have now declared holidays, we are taking this frame to super markets and other public places, where more crowd gathers in the evenings,” he added.Raja said standup comedian Gangavathi Pranesh would be joining the awareness programme to attract more youths in the coming days. “Once youths are convinced on the necessity of voting, they will be committed throughout their life and that leads to success of democracy,” he said.Additional deputy commissioner Rudresh Ghali said there was good response from students at colleges where the frame was placed. “Votergram enthralled the students and they shared their selfies with friends from other districts too,” the official added.District information officer B V Tukaram Rao said, “Votergram is designed to facilitate citizens to take picture along with their family members and friends.”Dr Shankar Malapure, director, KIMS, Koppal, said about 1,000 citizens, including 450 students, attended demonstration at his college. “About 60 students enrolled their names in the voter list on the spot. Now they have uploaded their image taken with Votergram as their profile picture. Votergram has been an inspiration for our students,” he said.

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