Another drive is on with your neighbour friend

Another drive is on with your neighbour friend

Janaagraha has introduced the concept of Area Voter Mitra to guide and motivate voters

Sunitha Rao R. Bangalore

As the BBMP elections are nearing, Janaagraha, a NGO, has started Jaagte Raho campaign to increase the electoral registration percentage in the city.
The campaign, launched four days back in the city, has introduced the concept of Area Voters Mitra (AVM), who is 'your neighbourhood friend' for voter issues. The vision of Jaagte Raho is to redefine the pattern of electoral engagement in urban India, say the organisers.
In order to enable this campaign, Janaagraha has tied up with the Election Commission of India.
Through this campaign, Janagraha intends to reach out to the grass roots of Bangalore to get active citizens and groups to engage in their own neighbourhoods for a higher turnout in the BBMP elections. Local representatives (ward corporators) play the most important role in solving local issues, and the need of the hour is for people to demand better accountability by participating in this election in large numbers.
Speaking to DNA, Jasmine Shah, co- ordinator of the campaign said each AVM will look after about 200 to 300 houses in their polling booth to ensure that the residents of 300 houses participate and vote in the BBMP elections. Over 5,000 volunteers will be taking part as AVMs across the city.
Training will be given to AVMs during the weekends through camps in their vicinity. AVMs will educate the residents on the significance of the elections and their role in it. They will also provide posters and ID cards to the people. This is done to bring back the civic engagement of the society to involve public interaction in the campaign.
If citizens want to know their AVMs, they have to log on to the website, type the locality name along with the constituency.
"Public can get the area map of the locality and constituency and once the area name and constituency are typed, they will get the list of AVMs of their area along with the contact numbers," said Shah.
For guidance or direction about voter registration or final voters' list, the AVMs will help the public through telephonic talk too.
Launched for the first time in Bangalore, Jaagte Raho campaign will be spread across the country in course of time to sensitise the voters, said Ramesh Ramanathan, co-founder of Janaagraha.
About 5,000 AVMs will be helping public on the day of election through each booth.