Mohali Administration today marked 15th National Voters’ Day at Shiwalik Public School, Phase 6. Earlier, a cycle rally was flagged off by SDM Damandeep Kaur from School of Eminence, Phase 3B1, Mohali to Shiwalik Public School to create an awareness among the youth to become voters.
Addressing the gathering of youth and others at the Auditorium of the School, the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Electoral Officer, Aashika Jain while apprising the audience of the importance of vote, exhorted them to become a voter, if they have attained an age of 18 on January 1, 2025.
She said that our country is known as the world's biggest democracy and the day we are celebrating today, is known as the installation day of the Election Commission of India, that came into existence a day before the Republic Day, in 1950.
Today, we have enrolled about 99.1 crore Indians as voters and soon we will surpass the figure of 100 crore voters, that would also be a proud moment for the biggest democracy of the globe, she added.
Calling for assuming responsibility as a voter, she said that a vote decides the future of a democratic country. The more the votes will be polled, the more our contribution will assert our right to choose the right and wrong.
She said that the National Voters’ day that was started to celebrate from 2011, was aimed at making awareness among the voters, especially youth, to be the part of democracy by enrolling as a voter and then exercising their right to choose a strong Government to run the Nation or State.
She said that anyone having age 18 or above, can easily enroll himself/herself as a voter by calling at 1950 or logging onto National Voter Service Portal or by downloading an app Voter Helpline onmobile phone. Video Message of Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sh Rajiv Kumar was also played during the programme.
On this occasion, the best performers were also felicitated including SDM Derabassi, Amit Gupta (SDM Mohali got award on his behalf), Booth Level Officer of Booth No. 9 of Derabassi, Sunita Rana and Dr Ravinder Singh, Lecturer, Govt Polytechnic, Khooni Majra as Nodal Officers for Campus for enrolling maximum number of young voters.
Apart from that,District ICONs Ms Poonam Lal and Gurpreet Singh Naamdhari, District SVEEP Nodal officer Prof. Gurbakhsish Singh Antal, District Lead Bank Bank (PNB) Manager MK Bhardwaj, District Education Officer Dr Ginni Duggal, Principal Shiwalik School Dr Anup Kiran, Election Tehsildar Sanjay Kumar were also felicitated inthe function.
To make the event colourful, cultural items like Gidha by Govt Girls Senior Secondary School, Sohana, Bhangra By Swami Ram Tirath Public School Mohali, Choreography by BSH Aarya School, Mohali and Group Song, Poem, Speeches and Nukkad Natak on the importance of Vote were also the part of the National Voters’ Day.
An exhibition based on the Slogan writing and Poster Making Competition also showcased the ideas and concepts of would-be voters regarding democracy. Winners of Slogan writing; Jaspreet Kaur, Prachi, Ekampreet (all from Shiwalik Public School), of Poster making; Rehmat, Kumari Deepakshi and Mannat Sharma (all from Shiwalik Public School) and of Declamation contest; Manpreet, Isha Bedi and Anita Rani (all from Govt College Phase 6) were also felicitated with medals and certificates.
Staff of the Election Office and other employees who worked hard for election related works , were also honoured with appreciation certificates. A pledge was also administered to the audience by the Deputy Commissioner to use their voting rights as a responsible citizen.