Maximum students, minimum turnout

NOIDA: The polling booths with the largest number of students in Gautam Budh Nagar district are also the ones with a track record of the lowest voter turnouts.
The polling centre in Tugalpur area of Greater Noida has four polling booths, three of which are for the scores of students of the academic institutions located in Knowledge Park, Greater Noida. The fourth booth is for residents of Tugalpur village. While the district’s average turnout in the previous Lok Sabha election was 57.83%, the voter turnout in the three polling booths meant for students were 27.25%, 29.99% and 30.30% respectively.All three figures are the lowest in the district.
Kumar Vineet ADM (executive) and deputy district election officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, said the figures did not augur well.
When district administration officials visited the booths and spoke to voters for corrective measures, they found different reasons for the low turnouts. Some students said that while they understood the importance of voting, since they were from other towns and cities, they felt they had little or no stake in the local election.
Some other students said that they wanted to vote in the election but they had given up the idea as the polling booths were located some 2km away in Tugalpur village.
Factoring in the problem faced by the students, Vineet said the district administration had shifted the students’ three polling booths to Sharda University campus in order to increase the polling turnout.
“The officials also conducted voters’ enrolment campaign and added a number of first-time voters in the area. We are going to organise a Youth Voters’ Fest on January 23, where several thousand students are expected to join. We will inform them to enthusiastically take part in the polls as it is good for democracy,” the ADM said.
The officials also demonstrated their effort to increase the voter turnout through a PowerPoint presentation on Friday to Pallavi Chinya, election observer in Surajpur.
The election officials have also made a WhatsApp group and coordinating with officials of different colleges. Gautam Budh Nagar has a total of 12,75,394 voters in the three assembly constituencies of Noida, Jewar and Dadri who will go to the polls on February 11.