Elections

As the Officer in Charge of Elections in Darjeeling District in 2023, I :

a. Supervised the BLO House to House Survey exercise for SSR 2024 b. Successfully organised State Level Election training on ERONET 2.0 and SSR-2024, conducted by the Office of the CEO, WB for 8 districts of North Bengal at Marriott, Siliguri. c. Organised extensive training for all AEROs, BDOs, and Supervisors for SSR-2024 and allied activities. d. Successfully coordinated with EVM Cell at Siliguri for First Level Checking of M3 EVMs and VVPATs in August, 2023

During my stint as District Nodal Officer, SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) of Darjeeling District during the run-up to the 2024 Indian General Elections,The SVEEP cell, Darjeeling conducted wide scale activities to educate and sensitize public with an aim to increase the voter’s participation, through activities/programs as under :

1. EVM Demonstration and awareness campaigns throughout the district
2. Distribution of pamphlets as awareness generation activity among all sections of society and age group
3. Selfie point at various locations for mass scale participation
4. SVEEP trainings, Sit and Draw competition on International Women’s Day
5. Chunav Pathshala as SVEEP programme at various PS
6. Awareness drive with Tableu on importance of voting
7. Distribution of pledge to fresh voters and their parents
8. Formation of Electoral Literacy Clubs at various schools and colleges
9. Activities in the form of Painting competition, Drama , Rangoli making competition, Mock drills on Polling Process, and Rallies with election slogans by students
10. Outdoor activities like Street Plays, Skits, and Games (cricket, football tournaments)
11. Creative activities like Cultural Fashion Shows, Fashion contests, Recording election songs at Kurseong Radio Stations
12. Printing the Election Logos and Translating Election Slogans in vernacular languages (Nepali and Bengali) for its widescale distribution and sharing in social media platform
13. Printing the Voter’s Guide Handbooks (PwD and Senior Citizens) for distribution and sharing among the masses
14. Life-size wall painting and signature campaigns on the theme of General Election to Lok Sabha 2024 at the office of the District Magistrate, Darjeeling
15. Sveep awareness programs in cooperation with the Central Bureau of Communication at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and B.T College, Darjeeling
16. Sveep awareness program (Hands on Experience of Voting machine) customized for the PwD and Senior Citizens at Charitable Homes and Age old Homes,
17. Awareness programs and EVM demonstrations for the plantation workers of Tea Gardens and Cincona Plantations
18. Widescale sensitization of Home Voting facility for the senior citizens above 85 years old
19. Sharing of all the photographs and iconographic information at various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram regularly.
20. Miscellaneous activities like - The post masters delivering every letter with the special stamp of Election Logo, encouraging everyone to vote on 26th April. Awareness programe at Red Light Areas, Free Medical Camps, Blood Donation Camps , SVEEP Activities of EVM demonstration at an High Altitude of 7700 ft. P-2 Polling station 23/04, Samanden Forest Primary School Under Darjeeling Pulbazar Development Block. ‘Difficult route leads to the beautiful destination’.

For General Elections 2024 some special initiatives were:

1. Elderly Electors: A number of arrangements were made for assisting the elderly voters. A voter assistance booth was organized in the polling stations where all the elderly voters were assisted throughout the voting process. Initiatives were taken for forming priority based queues in the polling stations with an aim of giving first preference to old aged electors. Apart from this, home voting arrangements were made for senior citizen voters aged 85 years and above.

2.Enthusiastic first time electors: a. Several co-curricular activities under the SVEEP banner were organized at different block and municipality levels with an aim to target the young first time voters. Activities such as debates, fashion shows, skits, quiz competitions and sports activities such as football and cricket were organized in different schools and colleges, where awareness regarding the right to vote and the importance of voting was conveyed to the young generation of first time voters attending the activities b. On 3rd April 2024, the students from St. Alphonsus School, Kurseong performed a song related to voting at the All India Radio studio for both Nepali and Hindi channels as a part of the SVEEP activities

3.Arrangements and achievements of PWD Voters: a. With an aim to make voting accessible to Persons with Disability arrangements such as ramps and wheelchairs were made available in the polling stations. b. Subsequently, a 24 year old female with 100% cerebral palsy, resident who did not opt for home voting was motivated to turn up for the voting process in the polling booth. Hence, SVEEP team made vehicle arrangements and made sure that she would be assisted to the polling booth and throughout the voting process. She was later dropped safely to her residence after casting her vote.

1. Arrangements in Model Polling Stations:
   • Total 22 Model Polling stations were set up in the district which was spread over 3 municipalities and 5 block areas.
   • A number of facilities were provided at the model polling stations keeping in mind the needs of the voters such as:
   • Safe drinking water was made available for everyone present in the booths.
   • Ramp facilities for PWD using wheel chair for smooth movement.
   • Breast feeding corner for lactating mothers and babies.
   • Old age resting area for elderly voters.
   • Wheel chair Assistance for PWD electors.
   • Shed area for electors waiting for their turn to vote

5.Special initiatives for women electors:

• For the convenience of women electors, a pink booth was organized in the district manned by all women polling personnel.Keeping in mind the needs of women polling personnel special arrangements were made for them in these booths such as bedding facility was installed along with separate toilets and changing room for the women.For the Women elctors availability of breast feeding corner and crèche was also ensured.
• Women manned polling station in the District

6.Initiative for transgender electors: With an aim to make voting inclusive SVEEP awareness activities were conducted targeting the active participation of transgender electors in the district. As a result, a number of transgender voters showed up at the polling stations to cast their vote.