Eco-friendly Ganesha celebrations become platform for voter awareness
You don’t have any Active Subscription.
Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription
ZP CEO K.R. Nandini and Deputy Commissioner Kumar during the launch of Young Ganesha voter awareness campaign, in Mandya on Saturday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Mandya district administration and District Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) Committee organised a voter awareness programme under the ‘Young Ganesha’ concept, combining Gauri-Ganesha festival celebrations with a message on electoral participation.
As part of the programme, Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) were symbolically distributed to newly registered young voters following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls-2026. A rangoli highlighting SIR-2026 and various other SVEEP activities were also organised.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Kumar said it was the responsibility of everyone to celebrate the Gauri-Ganesha festival in an environment-friendly manner. He urged people to install clay idols and avoid Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols to protect the environment.
He said young voters had an important role to play in a democratic system and the ‘Young Ganesha’ initiative was aimed at creating voter awareness among them while celebrating the festival.
He urged every person who had attained the age of 18 to enrol as a voter. During the SIR process, around 1.60 lakh names of deceased, bogus and duplicate voters were removed from the electoral rolls in the district, the Deputy Commissioner said.
The process of enrolling new voters had now begun, with more than 1,000 applications already received. “Our objective is to ensure that no eligible young voter is left out and to prepare a healthy and clean electoral roll,” Dr. Kumar said.
Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer and District SVEEP Committee chairperson K.R. Nandini said innovative activities were being organised to ensure that SVEEP programmes directly reached young voters rather than remaining confined to conventional methods.
Recently, a singing competition was organised at Mandya University for eligible voters aged above 18. A differently abled student had written the lyrics and composed music on the SIR process and performed the song along with friends. The song has now been adopted as the district’s SVEEP awareness song, she said.
As a continuation of such initiatives, voter awareness activities were being organised during the Gauri-Ganesha festival in association with the City Municipal Council under the concepts of ‘SVEEP Gauri’ and ‘Young Voter Ganesha’, Ms. Nandini said.
The programme was designed to attract the attention of young voters and convey the message: “My right, my responsibility, my vote — I will register.”
Students, young voters, municipal officials and members of the District SVEEP Committee were present.
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.
