Forthcoming elections to be tech-driven: Election Officer

Bengaluru: Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) in association with District Election Office Bengaluru on Wednesday organised a special virtual address on the State Electoral Process by Tushar Girinath, IAS, Chief Commissioner, BBMP & District Election Officer, Bangalore to sensitise the employees of Small Scale Industries, Manufacturing, IT, BT, Pharma, Engineering, Garments, Food processing, Hospitality and Tourism about the importance of electoral process and how they can contribute towards creating a more informed and engaged electorate in view of the ensuing State Assembly Elections in Karnataka.

Addressing a virtual meeting of employees from these sectors, Tushar Girinath said, "We are working towards increasing the voting percentage in Bengaluru City from the existing 55% to 75%. A lot of work has been done to increase the number of voters in the 18 to 29 age group and in fact, we have been able to double the enrolment number in the 18 to 19 years age group to 1,35,000. A total of 5,00,000 voters have been added since January 2023.

Adding on, he said: 'We are in the process of developing a queue app and a parking app so that voters can get real time information. We will attempt to send SMS to all eligible voters a day before the elections to remind them to cast their votes. The voter slip with details of elector with Sl no , part no and polling station no will be sent to each elector around 10 days before the election so that the elector has full information. We have around 9000 polling stations as of now in Bengaluru city and will most probably retain 1600 voters per polling station.

'Around 55,000 personnel from government and academia will be engaged in polling duty. We will also be engaging 95,000 police and paramilitary personnel as well for the forthcoming elections. I urge all BCIC members to become icons and ambassadors and create awareness among their employees to encourage them to cast their vote as a democratic duty and use social awareness and not coercion as the best way to ensure voting." Girinath added.

Speaking at the meeting, Dr L Ravindran, President, BCIC said, "We have received an appeal letter from the Chief Commissioner, BBMP & District Election Officer, Bangalore, which will be circulated among 950 corporate members of BCIC, for further circulation at their places of work."