New Delhi. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday said that today’s students are the torchbearers of tomorrow’s democracy. He said that the Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC 2.0) being established across the country will further strengthen the foundation of the world’s largest democracy.
Election Commission of India (ECI) organized the 3rd Regional Conference on “Electoral Literacy Club (ELC 2.0) and ECINET” in Chennai. Students and teachers from schools, colleges and universities of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry participated in it.
Addressing the conference, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said that connecting the youth with the democratic process and strengthening their trust in the electoral system is an investment in the future of democracy. He urged the students to understand the electoral system of India, democratic values, process of voter registration, voting and counting and the role and functioning of the Election Commission.
He said that elections in India are conducted with complete transparency in accordance with the Constitution, law and the instructions of the Election Commission. Each stage of the election process is concurrently monitored and audited in the presence of political parties, candidates and their representatives.
The Election Commission has launched ELC 2.0 with the tagline “Learn Democracy, Lead Democracy”. Under this, Electoral Literacy Club will be developed as a digital and organized platform in schools, colleges and universities. A dedicated ELC portal will be created through the ECInet platform to conduct electoral literacy activities throughout the year and create an integrated network of ELCs across the country.
According to the Commission, there are about 15 lakh schools, about 25 crore students and more than one crore teachers in the country. In the higher education sector, there are about 1,500 universities, 70,000 educational institutions and about 4.33 crore students. Through this wide network, ELC 2.0 aims to develop factual and practical understanding of the electoral process among the youth and make them agents of conscious democratic participation. Under this initiative, the youth will also be given information about voter registration, voting, counting of votes, ECINet App and other key initiatives of the Election Commission.
Earlier, the Chief Election Commissioner interacted with more than 500 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) of Tamil Nadu. He complimented the BLO for the successful conduct of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) operation. Also congratulated him on the highest turnout recorded in the history of the state with 4.93 crore votes polled in the recently concluded assembly elections and 86.03 percent voting. During the event, students and BLOs participated in a question and answer session with the Chief Election Commissioner and got direct answers to their questions related to the election process.