Karwar: Soon, huge balloons will fly high at various places across Uttara Kannada district creating awareness among voters to exercise their franchise in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

As per plan, such balloons will be displayed at Murdeshwar, Gokarna, Sirsi and Karwar in the district under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme. Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Roshan, who is also the president of the SVEEP committee, has prepared the plan. Tender for the supply of such balloons has already been invited and it is in the final stage of processing.

The balloons to be displayed will be helium balloons and they will fly at a distance of 100 feet from the ground. They will be held in the air using strong strings and will be displayed for around one week. Slogans related to the elections, awareness messages and symbols related to elections will be printed on the balloons. 

Schedule

The balloons will be flown at Gokarna beach on March 2, at Rabindranath Tagore Beach in Karwar on March 4, at Murdeshwar beach on March 13 and at Sirsi on March 23.

ZP CEO Mohammed Roshan said that displaying such huge balloons with messages in public places will definitely draw the attention of the voters. The Election Commission had released Rs 10 lakh under the SVEEP programme and these balloons will be brought using those funds.

Motivating voters

“Ensuring greater participation of physically challenged, especially deaf voters, youths and senior citizens in the election is our main aim this time. So special programmes have been arranged to make them aware and motivate them 
for exercising their franchise,” informed Mohammed Roashan.

He said that there are as many as 1,578 people with hearing problems in the district and to create awareness among them, services of six special teachers are being sought. These teachers will convey awareness message to these people in sign language. Such awareness programmes will be held in all taluk headquarters in the district.

 Signature campaign

District Information Officer Himanthraju G said that a huge signature campaign has been organised as part of the special programmes arranged for voter awareness.

He explained that various programmes under SVEEP have been organised at all taluk headquarters in Uttara Kannada district. During these programmes, huge boards will be installed. These boards will have awareness messages related to the elections and at the bottom, there will be space for signatures.