Hyderabad: Photo exhibition on voters’ awareness open till April 22

Hyderabad: In a bid to increase the voter turnout in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Central government has organised a photo exhibition till April 22 for awareness about the importance of voting. The exhibition is being managed by the Central Bureau of Communication under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The three-day exhibition on voters’ awareness has been placed at the central reservation counter of Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station considering the huge footfall the place has daily thus enhancing the outreach efforts. The exhibition also features awareness videos made by CBC.

Organised as part of the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme, the photo exhibition has an array of 32 information panels developed and curated by CBC, which take visitors through India’s election journey that began in 1951 and also highlighted all aspects of polling from ECI’s mobile apps to EVMs.

Call for the participation of first-time voters

Inaugurating the exhibition, Vikas Raj, chief electoral officer, Telangana, urged the voters to become a part of the festival of democracy and make it a free and fair exercise. “We need to make polling a free and fair exercise and responsibility is on the voters too to make it inducement-free,” he said.

Vikas Raj said that the first thing for voters to do is to find out their respective polling booth. “There are many ways such as the ECI portal and mobile apps to know polling booths. To exercise your franchise, you can visit your polling booth with the EPIC or any of the 12 identification cards recognised by ECI,” he said.

Arrangement for the summer heat

He urged voters not to make summer heat an excuse to skip voting as ECI is making necessary arrangements in the wake of heatwave conditions in the State. He said ECI has been conducting awareness campaigns for the past seven to eight months and appreciated the CBC for setting up the photo exhibition at MGBS, which would strengthen the SVEEP efforts.

Addressing the gathering, the vice chairman and managing director, of TSRTC, V Sajjanar, IPS, called upon first-time voters and youngsters to actively take part in the festival of democracy by making use of the holiday given on polling day. He asked voters not to get influenced by freebies. Sajjanar volunteered at TSRTC premises across the state to conduct more such voter awareness campaigns.

Earlier, Shruti Patil, Addl. DG, PIB & CBC, Hyderabad spoke about the various initiatives of the Ministry of I&B in collaboration with the Office of CEO, Telangana, like the street plays staged across the state. She said that CBC would put up similar exhibitions in major towns of the state to beat urban voter apathy.

The play ‘Votey Mana Ayudham’ (Vote Is Our Weapon) presented by the artists of Song and Drama Division, CBC, during the inaugural programme exhorted first-time and young voters to exercise their franchise.