<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Election Commission today launched Matadata Junction, a year-long voter awareness program on All India Radio. A total 52-episode programme of 15-minute duration each will be broadcast every Friday on Vividh Bharati stations, FM Rainbow, FM Gold and Primary channels of AIR. The Matadata Junction programme will be broadcast in 23 languages across the country. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar launched the Program in the presence of Election Commissioner Anoop Chandra Pandey, CEO Prasar Bharati Mayank Kumar Agrawal  and Director General AIR News Vasudha Gupta in New Delhi.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">Speaking on the occasion Mr. Kumar said that the programme will help in creating awareness among the voters across the country. He added that each programme will be based on a particular theme of the electoral process.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Chief Election Commissioner also announced Actor Pankaj Tripathi as the National Icon of the Election Commission. Earlier, he was the state icon of the ECI for  Bihar.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">Election Commissioner Anoop Chandra Pandey highlighted that Indian democracy is the biggest and strongest democracy in the world. He said, at present 95 crore voters are in the country which is growing day-by-day. Mr. Pandey said that the Commission will take every step to further increase voter participation.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">Prasar Bharti CEO Mayank Kumar Agarwal praised the collaboration of Doordarshan, All India Radio and the Election Commission. He said, this collaboration is very old and takes another important step in the direction to educate and aware the country's voters. Mr. Agarwal said the important part of this programme is the content which will be provided to people in their own language.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The weekly program will cover all aspects of the Voter ecosystem and shall be broadcast every Friday on the All India Radio network.  All the 52 themes are aimed at encouraging all eligible citizens and especially the young and first-time voters to vote and make an informed decision during the elections. Quiz, experts' interviews, and songs produced by the SVEEP (Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation) team of the ECI will be carried in every episode. The program includes a citizen's corner where any citizen can ask a query or suggest any aspects of the voting.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">Our correspondent reports that the 15 Minutes programme will go on air between 7 to 9 PM based on the channels' slots. The first episode of the programme will be broadcast on the 7th of this month. People can also listen to the programme on Twitter on @airnewsalerts, News On AIR App, and YouTube channels of All India Radio. </span></p>