Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], August 27 (ANI): Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday interacted with Booth Level Officers (BLOs) of Tamil Nadu during the Regional Conference on Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC 2.0) and the ECINET App in Chennai, where stakeholders discussed strengthening electoral literacy and awareness among citizens.
The interaction, held at Kalaivanar Arangam, provided an opportunity for BLOs to share their grassroots experiences and insights from the field, while highlighting their role in strengthening the electoral process.
The conference brought together participants to exchange ideas and experiences on strengthening Electoral Literacy Clubs, enhancing electoral awareness and exploring the role of the ECINET App.
During the conference, Election Commission of India Director General (Media) Ashish Goyal delivered a presentation on "The Young Citizen's Electoral Guide". The session highlighted four essential literacies for young citizens: "Electoral, Constitutional, Information and Civic".
ECI Director General (IT) Seema Khanna delivered a presentation on the "ECINET App", introducing participants to the Commission's unified digital platform and its range of election-related information and services for voters and stakeholders.
Deputy Election Commissioner Bhanu Prakash Yeturu addressed participants on "Overview of Indian Elections: Trust & Transparency". The session provided insights into the scale, processes and transparency measures associated with the electoral process.
Deputy Director Apurva Kumar Singh spoke on "ELC 2.0: Functioning & Features", highlighting its structure, key features and activities aimed at engaging young citizens and strengthening their understanding of the electoral process.
Students from various Kendriya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu also participated in the conference. Manaswini from KV IIT said she was excited to attend the conference and learn about the "festival of democracy" as a citizen of the country.
Niharika from KV OCF said she was looking forward to the question-and-answer session with the Chief Election Commissioner and hoped to put forward her question. D Gowtham Kumar from KV DGQA said he was particularly interested in the demonstration of the polling process as the students would be the next voters.
Kanishkar from KV HVF Avadi said he was looking forward to learning about the ECINET App, election technology, EVMs and the security systems involved in elections.
Yaazhini, a Class 12 commerce student from Kendriya Vidyalaya Meenambakkam, said she was excited to attend the conference and learn about the Election Commission, adding that the discussions would also help her studies.
"I'm very excited to know about the Election Commission, because it relates to my subjects and it will help my studies very well. And I'm so blessed and honoured to be here, and so, I hope that I'll be learning new things today. And I'm so excited," she shared.
A teacher participating in the conference said she felt proud of the initiative and described the effort to make children informed about elections and voting as a "Herculean task".
"I feel so excited. I feel so proud to be in this conference. First of all, the honourable Election Commission of India has taken a great effort. 'Great effort' is something--a very small word, a Herculean task to conduct such a conference to make the children well informed about how an election should be conducted, how the future citizens of our country should elect their leader, how should they vote, and all these things. And I feel so proud to be a citizen of our country," she said.
Earlier, Gyanesh Kumar on Monday said conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls required both the "guts" of the Election Commission and strong cooperation from voters, which he said has helped the Election Commission of India (ECI) earn recognition from other countries.
Speaking at the second regional conference on "Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC 2.0) and ECINET", organised by the ECI in Lucknow, Kumar said, "Conducting SIR requires not only guts on the part of the Election Commission but also the cooperation of the voters. And we received that cooperation from voters in abundance."
He added, "That is precisely why, today, others look to the Election Commission of India, learning from it and praising it, wishing they could or resolving that they will do the same in their own countries." (ANI)
CEC Gyanesh Kumar interacts with Tamil Nadu BLOs at Chennai conference on Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC 2.0)
