Mangalore: Weeklong Voter Awareness Programme - Pratijna - concludes

By Sudeep Shenoy
Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, Apr 3 : Pratijna, a week long voter awareness programme initiated by the department of mass communication of St Aloysius College, in association with Community Radio Sarang 107.8MHz, Election Commission of India - Dakshina Kannada district Zilla Panchayat SVEEP programme, and Super Souls NGO concluded at TMA Pai Auditorium, here on Tuesday April 1, at the lines of an interaction session with Indian former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.
 
 
The voter awareness campaign was launched on March 26 by DK Zilla Panchayat CEO Tulasi Maddineni IAS, who interacted with the listeners of Community Radio Sarang 107.8MHz in an hour-long live phone-in programme, wherein she discussed several issues with regard to voter rights. Later, she interacted with the students of journalism and mass communication of St Aloysius College and urged them to be responsible citizens of the nation, by not being cynical and developing a positive outlook towards the prospects of India.

 

 

In the course of the week, the students created awareness about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections among various sections of the society including housewives, rikshaw drivers, fishermen, youth, businessmen etc. Pamphlets on voter rights and duties were distributed among the public. A signature campaign was also organized where individuals from different walks of life pledged to vote in the upcoming elections.
 
 
The event managers for Pratijna, Sudeep Shenoy and Jeena Elizabeth John visited different departments and administered an oath to the students. Many organizations including Pizza Hut, Cinepolis, Phalguni Cashew Centre, Mango Berrys, Reliance Digital, Kapoor Kulfi, Anya – The Cloth Shoppe, DeNovo, PAMT, Densure etc. promised to support the upcoming elections and create awareness among their employees and customers.
 
 
As a part of the campaign, Pratijna also associated with Super Souls, a non-profit NGO consisting of volunteers from various walks of life, who organized Super Sunday at City Centre Mall, Mangalore on March 30. This event was a fun-filled awareness event, with activities like music, dance, games, skit, flash dance, caricatures and artwork sessions. Most importantly, the event put forth a message of responsible voting, wherein the team urged the people to cast their votes responsibly. Pamphlets were distributed as well as pledge were collected by the volunteers who numbered more than 70.

 
In the course of the campaign, over 3,000 pamphlets were distributed, oath was administered to over 800 students and over 1000 pledges were collected. As a culmination to the week-long awareness programme, the student event managers of Pratijna, Sudeep Shenoy and Jeena Elizabeth John were invited by the district administration to be a part of the interaction session with Dr Kalam. The students then handed over the collected documentation including the oath, signed pledge letters etc. to the district administration.