6PC Increase Achieved In Targeted 277 Polling Stations

Shimla, Nov 16 – It was due to the Mission-277 campaign launched by State Election Department for Vidhan Sabha Elections-2022 under UTSAV (Universal Transparent election through Systemic Awareness of Voters) and SVEEP activities that 6 percent increase was achieved in targeted 277 polling stations, which witnessed low voter participation earlier, stated Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg here today.

After the identification of these polling stations, a detailed analysis was done to find out the reasons for low voting in these polling stations. Some of the reasons that emerged were the migratory population, boycott owing to local issues, youth, urban apathy and, voter apathy, especially among central government employees belonging to other states. Besides, electors working in other states, adverse weather conditions, wedding season and harvesting season during the elections were a few other reasons.

Taking all these measures into consideration, an array of targeted interventions, including awareness programmes, regular meetings at various levels, personal visits of District Election Officers/Returning Officers/ Senior officers/Block level officers, pro-active election literacy clubs, chunav pathshala activities, interventions by booth awareness groups and mass mobilization activities were undertaken.

The State Election Department targeted 277 such polling stations under its campaign ‘ Mission -277’. There has been a significant improvement in the voter turnout in these 277 polling stations, stated Shri Garg

S.No.	Name of the District	No. of Polling Stations in the District falling under Mission 277	Voters’ Turn out in these polling Stations during VSE-2017	Voters’ turnout in these polling stations during VSE-2022	Increase in Voters’ Turnout
1	Chamba	31	48.02	61.15	13.13
2	Kangra	54	55.62	61	5.38
3	Lahaul & Spiti	6	56.88	62.96	6.08
4	Kullu	12	58.86	61.76	2.90
5	Mandi	35	50.11	62.44	12.33
6	Hamirpur	19	56.55	66.31	9.77
7	Una	2	60.09	65.17	5.08
8	Bilaspur	4	51.24	65.64	14.40
9	Solan	32	55.78	55.84	0.06
10	Sirmour	4	55.02	58.36	3.34
11	Shimla	75	54.89	59.39	4.50
12	Kinnaur	3	56.02	36.50	0.48

He said that voter turnout considerably increased in the targeted polling stations. 198 polling stations out of 277 registered higher voter participation, 57 polling stations registered more than 10 per cent increase, while 10 polling stations registered 20 per cent increase. Similarly, two polling stations registered more than 30 per cent increase and two polling stations witnessed improvement of 40 percent, while four polling stations came up by 50 per cent increase. An overall 6 per cent increase was registered in these 277 polling stations.