Accountant General (AG) of Himachal Pradesh Kulwant Singh said that Election Commission of India has taken up a vigorous exercise to identify all eligible voters attaining the age of 18 years as on 1st January of every year in each of the 8.5 lakh polling station areas of the country. While presiding over the state level National Voters Day function organised by the State Election Department at Gaiety Theatre, Shimla today, said that the Commission has solemnly committed to ensure participation of the newly acquired franchise in order to empowered democracy of the country.He said that the electors have a vital role in the democratic set up like India. Voters have been bestowed with right to franchise and with the use of this right they vote to elect their government. He said that in order to ensure their participation in the election process, the eligible citizens must get prepared their Electors Photo Identity card. He also lauded the efforts being made by the Election department to enroll and aware the electors.Shri Kulwant Singh administered the pledge of National Voters Day to the audience. Shri Singh and Mayor Shimla Municipal Corporation Ms Kusum Sadret also jointly conferred awards to state youth Icon as well as state awards for best electoral practices-2017 under SVEEP to Bhupender Kumar, Returning Officer (RO) of 64- Shimla Rural assembly constituency (AC) Jyoti Gupta RO of 62-Kasumpti AC and Vijay Kumar, RO of 37-Sujanpur AC for increasing voting percentage in their respective constituencies.
They also conferred awards to Aditya Negi, RO of 52- Doon AC and Yogesh Chauhan RO of 59- Shillai AC for maintaining 80 plus voter’s turnout percentage. He conferred award to Bhim Singh of Kangra district Begma Devi of Kullu district, Indira Devi of Mandi district, Reeta Devi of Hamirpur district, Roshni of Solan district, Sunita Devi of Shimla district, Shiv Chand of Kinnaur district and Naresh Kumari of Una district for best electoral practices to BLOs -2017. They also distributed Electors Photo Identity Cards to the newly enrolled electors. They also released the calendar of the Election Department.Additional Chief Electoral Officer D.K. Rattan while welcoming the Chief Guest listed various activities being undertaken by the department.A colourful cultural programme was also presented by Kala Sangam Shimla, Smanvay Theatre and Gulab Singh and Party on this occasion.Additional Deputy Commissioner Shimla Ms. Dev Sweta Banik presented the vote of thanks. Rakesh Kumar Deputy Mayor Shimla MC Smt. Prabha Rajeev, ADM (Law & Order), Smt. Neerja Chandla, SDM (U) Shri Prabhat Coordinator of NYK, officers of district Administration and Election Department were also present among others.