Lucknow: A delegation led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will visit Uttar Pradesh for two days beginning Monday, August 24, to further strengthen the electoral process at the grassroots level, engage youth and future voters with the electoral system, promote electoral literacy, and interact with Booth Level Officers.
The delegation will include Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg, Director General (Media) Ashish Goyal, Director General (IT) Dr Seema Khanna, and other senior officials of the Commission.
In a statement issued on Saturday, August 22, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, UP, said the Chief Election Commissioner will participate in an interactive session with students at the Awadh Auditorium of Colvin Taluqdars’ College on Monday.
He had received his early education at this institution.
Subsequently, he will attend a one-day regional conference on ELC 2.0 and ECINET as the chief guest at the Jupiter Hall of the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow, the statement said.
Regional conferences on ELC and ECINET will be organised in three phases in Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi.
The first phase in Lucknow will be attended by Deputy District Election Officers, District Inspectors of Schools, and Media Nodal Officers from 20 districts, including Shahjahanpur, Ayodhya, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Amethi, Gonda, Bahraich, Mainpuri, Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiya, Etawah, Kannauj, Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Hardoi, Kheri, Raebareli, Sitapur, and Unnao.
The Election Commission of India launched Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs) in 2018 under the SVEEP program.
The objective was to familiarise students and young citizens with democratic values, the electoral process, and the role and functioning of the Election Commission.
Given the evolving landscape of information and communication and the increasing digital engagement of the youth, the ELC programme is now being redefined as ELC 2.0.
The aim is to develop ELCs in schools, colleges, and universities into platforms that are active year-round, experiential, and digitally enabled.
To make the conference experiential and participatory, three stalls have been set up where participants will receive information on various aspects of voter registration, the voting process, and the vote-counting process through live demonstrations.
A special exhibition showcasing the Commission’s various initiatives, innovations, and significant achievements will also be organized.
Presentations will be given on the vision, mission, key features, and operational framework of ELC 2.0, as well as on the Indian electoral process and the ECINET platform.
On August 25, the second day of his visit, the Chief Election Commissioner will hold a direct interaction with approximately 500 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) from Lucknow and neighbouring districts at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow.
Navdeep Rinwa, the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, said that the event it will offer students and future voters an opportunity to gain a practical understanding of the electoral process.
It also acts as a platform for meaningful dialogue aimed at making the electoral process more effective, accessible, and transparent by leveraging the ground-level experiences and suggestions of the BLOs.
Similar regional conferences on ELC (Electoral Literacy Clubs) and ECINET will be organised across the state in subsequent phases, Rinwa said in the statement.
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