Discussion on Akashvani programe ‘Spotlight’ about upcoming Assembly Elections 2023

In a discussion on Akashvani’s Spotlight program, Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner of India, and Bhupendra Singh, Akashvani correspondent discussed Assembly Elections to be held in five states from 7th November 2023.” ”Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner of India highlights preparation made by Election Commission of India for the upcoming elections. He said elections in India are mammoth exercises and the responsibility of ensuring free and fair elections rests on the shoulders of the ECI.” ”Mr. Rajiv elaborates on how Commission contributed to exercise in line with this motto of ensuring that no voter is left behind? He said democracy and elections in India are very assimilative, and the entire decision-making, is accommodative. So, we have trust in the entire election integrity and we have conducted more than 400 elections to the state legislative assemblies, and every time results have just been accepted.” ”Hence, we divide our work of preparation in three verticals for voters, what kind of facilities we give them, how we ensure that they are enrolled and the roles are very pure and healthy. Then how is it participative for the political parties and the candidates and then thirdly, how the election management is done?” ”He further adds that to give you a scale of the elections in India, we have 95 crore voters and the interesting part is that the participation is increasing election after election. In the last election of 2019, it was 67% and there are female voters, women voters, percentage of their voting was higher than the male. Various steps are being taken to fill this gap or rather say, increase the percentage of voting. If we look at major voter’s category, there are three things that come to light. One is urban apathy, secondly the youth apathy and third is the migrant workforce within this state and outside this state which also is a factor in this missing number of voters.” ”On the process to revive the electoral rolls, Mr, Rajiv Kumar said that special summary revision is taken every year. Our electoral roll, the first ingredient of election integrity is to have a pure and healthy electoral roll. For that, we compare Health parameters with census figures. All our senior citizens have really contributed to the growth and the might of the country. We are kind of enjoying today. It's the duty of Election Commission to take special care of them. There are 1.84 crores 80 voters. We are very proud of it and of them, 2.55 lakhs are 100.  Now we are giving voting rights to all those who are 80 and also those who are persons with disabilities with 40% disability. Even in the 18 to 19 years age cohort we have around 1.85 crore voters.” ”There is a trial for every voter in the country and it is our appeal that on 9th of December fill up the appropriate form if you want to be a voter. All the young voters who are turning 18 on 1st of January 2024 must apply. We are trying to make it absolutely pure by directing the BLOs, to remove the names of those who have expired, and who have shifted and all BLOs will be available at the polling stations till 9th of December. We have given copies of the electoral draft, and electoral rolls to political parties.” ”He also shared about how to know about polling station voters have been assigned. Go straight to our website voter helpline and type your voter card number and you will know all the details about your booth and about your BLO also you can find out. Whosoever is turning 18 in the year 2024 can apply in advance.” ”Mr. Rajiv Kumar talked about efforts taken to combat the use of money power in elections; he said earlier there is to be muscle power and money power. It is only one or two states where it is left. We will tackle it. Now, it is money and fake news on media, social media in particular. Firstly Commission has increased the vigil on the use of money power during the elections. Secondly, it has made the compliance regime stronger, rigid, far more rigid, and also tech-driven.” ”We have started an application called EMS, Expenditure Management System in which political parties are required to give their annual accounts online. Candidates need to give their expenditure details to expenditure observers who will also make them digitised thereafter. Whatever donation the political parties get, that also needs to be given in the Expenditure Management System digitally. Elections in these five states which are undergoing now, we have also introduced an IT application where all central agencies have to and the state agencies Excise, Coast Guard, PSF, Income Tax, Eds, everybody has to on board on that system and give us the details of the seizures and interceptions almost on a live basis into the system. One has also introduced a program popularising it called C Vigil.” ”About the contribution of citizens, He said, the citizens be vigilant. If citizens are not serious, the voters need to be very serious about the purity in the election. If they see anything wrong happening, anybody distributing money, anybody disturbing the polling process or anything, they need to just take a photo or type it and post it on this C Vigil application. The names will be anonymous and our team will get because of the latitude and longitude will get the location and reach within 100 minutes and look at that complaint within 100 minutes which is being used in these five elections and we are getting very increasing results. we are very serious about Money power, and you are aware that to check the contribution reports because that gives them the income tax exemptions, number of registered but unrecognized political parties action was taken.” ”He further talk about steps taken to rein in freebies, He said all central government and state government agencies are working in a coordinated manner rather than working in silos. And this is a step, this is done, and this is achieved through the program application which I mentioned just now, about seizures and the actions taken by the authorities. We make an appeal to everyone to inform us, use C Vigil, and inform us, wherever it is happening, we would be extremely strict on that.” ”Listen to Full discussion on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnDVnaxfY3Q" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?vxnDVnaxfY3Q&source=gmail&ust=1699117356456000&usg=AOvVaw13cBR4OEH3jxWGa2zm6tm4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnDVnaxfY3Q</a>

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Discussion on Akashvani programe ‘Spotlight’ about upcoming Assembly Elections 2023