Vote responsibly for a strong democracy: Guv

Jaipur: Governor Kalraj Mishra has called upon citizens to exercise their vote with full discretion and responsibility for a strong democracy.He said that in a democracy a vote could choose a suitable public representative, while a vote exercised without thinking could end up in the election of an unsuitable one.Mishra was addressing the state level function of 12th National Voters’ Day from Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday.Governor expressed happiness that this year out of more than 20 lakh newly added voters in the revision of electoral rolls, more than 95% have been added through the online process. The governor said that the new system of voter registration four times in a year should be given wide publicity so that youth can get registered as soon as they attain the age of 18 years.Chief election commissioner

Sushil Chandra

's message on the occasion of National Voters' Day said that after amendment to the Representation of the People Act, now the process of adding the names of the youth who have completed 18 years in the electoral roll could be done four times in a year. Now every year on 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October, the names of youth who have completed 18 years could be added to the electoral roll. He said that the initiative to link the voter ID card with the Aadhaar number will prove to be important in removing duplication from the voter list.State election commissioner

Prem Singh Mehra

said in 1951-52, the total voters in the Lok Sabha elections in the country were 17.32 crore, which increased to more than 91.20 crore in the year 2019. He said that in the first Lok Sabha election, the voting percentage was 44.8, which reached 67% in 2019.Highlighting the importance of National Voters' Day, chief electoral officer Praveen Gupta claimed that Rajasthan has been a leader in taking online applications in the electoral roll revision campaign. In the revision campaign, more than 29 lakh online applications were received in the state, which is the highest in the country. He said that with the provision of home voting for differently abled and voters above 80 years of age, a significant increase has been registered in the voting percentage of Divyang voters. During the programme, as a new initiative, a new system of sending EPIC kits in multi-coloured envelopes was also started from

Malviya Nagar

and Bassi assembly constituencies of Jaipur district. This system will be implemented in the entire state in future.