“GREATER PARTICIPATION FOR A STRONGER DEMOCRACY”

The Chief Electoral Officer, Himachal Pradesh,  Maneesh Garg informed that 2 MoUs were signed today. 

The first MoU was signed between the Rural Development & Panchyati Raj Department and Election Department for spreading voter awareness among masses across the state. Under this MoU,  SVEEP committees will be constituted at the Gram Panchayat level by involving Self Help Groups (SHGs), Yuvak Mandals (YMs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs), Mahila Mandals and other user groups for coordination of SVEEP related activities within the gram panchayat. Further voter awareness agenda will be taken up in the monthly meetings of the Self Help Groups (SHGs), Yuvak Mandals (YMs) and Mahila Mandals. Under the MoU, Rural Development & Panchyati Raj Department will ensure matching and batching of specific SHG groups with people in the village to ensure their participation in the election process. The Rural Development & Panchyati Raj Department will also propagate the agenda of motivating masses to participate in electoral process, in Gram Sabha meetings. For this, Special Gram Sabhas will also be convened. 

The second MoU as signed between the Social Justice & Empowerment Department and Election Department for spreading voter awareness among masses across the state. Under this MoU,  Social Justice & Empowerment Department will provide a list of Persons with Disability above 18 years of age with complete address and type/types of disability as per UDID, DWDC and Pensioners’ 

database and a list of members of transgender, so that they could be enrolled and subsequently motivated to participate in electoral process. The department will further provide a list of CSOs/NGOs 

working in the field of Persons with Disability and Schools/Institutions being run for students/persons with special needs, so that they could be roped in for providing need based assistance to the PwD citizens for their enrollment and participation in electoral process. The Social Justice & Empowerment Department will also provide sufficient number of wheel chairs to the Election Department on the day of poll to facilitate voters with locomotor disorder. Under the MoU, the Social Justice & Empowerment 

Department will also provide the services of DWOS/TWOS to act as Nodal Officers at District and AC level, for registration, marking and participation of PwD electors. 

Pertinent to mention here that a similar MoU was signed between the Education Department and Election Department on 25th January,2024 on occasion of “National Voters‘ Day”. The basic idea behind signing these MoUs is to spread voters awareness among the general public by roping in and collaborating with those departments, which have a connect with people at grassroots level on a regular