A Shame. Bangalore poll turnout not even 50%

What a shame! Bangalore poll turnout did not even touch 50%. Can you beat it that Bangalore Rural had more voter turnout than the urban areas? The rural population has shown that they are more responsible than the high profile and highly educated urban folks. There is a difference of atleast 10 to 12% b/w rural and urban areas. Its quite shocking to see that the turnout is this low after several public campaigns like Jaagore, Aamir Khan’s ADR campaign, and other such organizations. You cant blame work because most companies had closed to allow their employees to vote. So, what else was needed to get more than half of the urban Bangalore to vote?

Look at the voter turnout figures below -
Bangalore Rural 57.92%
Bangalore North 46.78%
Bangalore South 44.73%
Bangalore Central 45.25%

Lets stop blaming the government or the politicians for the state of road, infrastructure, corruption etc. We are the ones who are allowing them to do so by not even taking a small effort to vote. We have no right to sit back and simply blame or point fingers.

The other problem was that many people who wanted to vote could not get their names in the electoral rolls. For god’s sake, someone should fix this because this happens during every election. Why is the process so cumbersome/unreliable to get one’s name in the rolls? One of my colleagues has tried 4 times and hasn’t been able to get his name.

One encouraging news I read in TOI today is that Chief Electoral officer M N Vidyashankar has identified this problem and plans to set up a 24×7 Help desk through BangaloreOne centres. This will function through the year and not just before elections to tackle voter woes.

I sincerely hope our people act more responsibly and the voter turnout for next polls are high, and hope that we end up having a government that we want to see.

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Go Green. Contribute in small ways in everyday life.

Provided below are some ways that all of us can contribute to a greener environment in our everyday lives.

1. All the green waste from kitchen can be collected and used as excellent fertilizer for pots or kitchen garden.
2. Envelopes from post : After opening and reading the letter, the envelop can be cut open fully; made to smaller sizes to write todo list or kids can practice tables, spellings etc. This is surely a way to teach kids about re-cycling, instead of giving to raddiwala. Sure we save 1 tree per year by doing this.
3. Do not wash Jeans so often.
4. Use Solar cooker - it’s excellent! By doing this the production, packing, transportation, storage etc of a cylinder is saved to a good extent.
5. Do not leave tap running while brushing your teeth.
6. Switch of all the unnecessary lights.
7. Use Solar energy for water heating.
8. Rain water harvesting - another GO GREEN idea. In India, this has been made mandatory now.
9. It is a pity that TONS and TONS of garbage gets collected each day and just taken to outskirts of the city and burnt. This has a serious impact to the environment. Instead of just burning, same can be used to generate energy.
10. Unplug Microwave, TV (not standby), TapeRecorders, VCR etc at the end of the day

Google and Jaagore launch an online voter list search engine

Is my name there in the voter’s list? How do I search for my name in the voter’s list?

There are several ways to search for your name in the voter’s list.

Option 1: Google, Jaagore search engine

Let me start with a new way of doing it, as it is the easiest and fastest. Google and Jaagore have launched an online voter list search engine, supposedly first of its kind. I got this reference in an email from Jaagore. My first impression - Its fast and well presented. But dont expect the data correctness to be any different than when you access the Govt website (option 2), since the database for both searches is likely to be the same.
URL to access this search engine (look at the right hand panel)

Option 2: Govt websites of respective Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) -

Karnataka
http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in/indexw.asp

Look for the option that says search in final electoral rolls or Click on this URL to search your name in the final electoral rolls. There are several fields on which you can search - by name, door no, pincode etc.

People in other states may need to look for their specific state websites. Look up http://eci.nic.in/ website to get more details

Maharashtra

1. Click on this link for Electoral Roll Help Line, by CEO Maharashtra. You can look up for Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban and Thane
http://220.225.73.202/
2. One more - http://220.225.73.214/marathi/
3. One more - http://122.168.101.114/pdfsearch/ (In Hindi)

Haryana
Search name in electoral rolls http://web1.hry.nic.in/voterlist/assembly.aspx
You can search by name, Door no etc for various constituencies like Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Hisar, Karnal, Sonipat, Rohtak, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad

Haryana CEO site - http://ceoharyana.nic.in/

Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)
Voters list name search - http://www.ceojammukashmir.nic.in/NameSearch/main.aspx
Districts - Jammu,Samba,Kathua,Udhampur & Reasi

J &K CEO site - http://www.ceojammukashmir.nic.in/

Punjab

Punjab CEO Site - http://ceopunjab.nic.in/English/

Rajasthan
Search your name in Electoral rolls - http://164.100.153.8/idsearch/default1.aspx

Rajasthan CEO website - http://www.ceorajasthan.nic.in/

Uttar Pradesh(UP) CEO website - http://tempceoup.up.nic.in/

West Bengal (WB)

Search your name in the rolls - http://59.90.58.52/search/

West Bengal CEO Website - http://www.ceowestbengal.nic.in/

Himachal Pradesh (HP)

Search name in Electoral rolls - http://hp.gov.in/electionsearch/default.aspx

Tamil Nadu
View Electoral rolls in TN (Tamil) - http://www.elections.tn.gov.in/pdfs/acwise_pdf.asp

View Electoral rolls in TN (English) - http://www.elections.tn.nic.in/pdfs/dt2eng.htm

Tamil Nadu CEO website - http://www.elections.tn.nic.in

Uttranchal

Electoral rolls/Voters list - http://gov.ua.nic.in/ceouttranchal/pdf_roll/01012009/Uttranchal_pdf_page.htm

Uttranchal CEO Website - http://gov.ua.nic.in/ceouttranchal/

Puducherry / Pondicherry

Search name in Electoral rolls - http://www.pon.nic.in/election/electmain.htm

Electoral Rolls 2009 (As on 24.04.2009) - http://www.ceopondicherry.nic.in/Pec/home.asp

Puducherry CEO website - http://www.ceopondicherry.nic.in

Option 3: Check original copy of the supplementary rolls with your ERO (Election Registration officer)

You should visit the voter facilitation center and check if your name is on the rolls.

[Update Apr 20, 2009] There is a 24X7 Helpline that has been set up for voter list related enquiries. In Bangalore, the number is 2222 8888. I called them up and they helped find my name in the voters list. I tried to search it online (from Govt website) and it wasnt available, but this call helped me to track my name in the voter’s list. Try it out and also spread this word to your other friends.

[update Apr 22, 2009] There are a couple of ways to know more about your constituency. See the following URLs -
http://www.smartvote.in

This website gives you details about all the candidates, their declared income, their crime record, polling booth details etc.

If you want to know your constituency based on the location in a map, Google has come up with a way to do that -
http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/

If you found this article useful, click on the ‘vote’ button on the top of this page and/or provide any comments/feedback in the space provided below.

Aamir Khan’s voter awareness campaign

SACHCHE KO CHUNEY, ACHCHE KO CHUNEY

My respect for Aamir Khan has multiplied many folds after seeing his latest move to increase awareness amongst people regarding voting for upcoming elections.

This is not just because he is appearing in the ad, but due to the fact that Aamir Khan did not charge for appearing in the ads but his production company ‘Aamir Khan Productions’ has also borne the cost of producing the ad films too.

I believe Aamir has also roped in Prasoon Joshi of McCann Erickson as the creative head, Rakyesh Mehra as the director, Avinash Gowariker as the still photographer and Shashi Sinha of Lodestar Media as the media planner for the campaign. Apparently all of them are doing it for free as they all fully believe in this campaign.

Videos of the campaign

Rishta Ad

Sabzi Ad

Sauda Ad

Here is a reference to the website that has information on this in more detail -
http://www.adrindia.org/home/aamir_speaks.asp

Akshara Montessori in Ulsoor, Bangalore

Akshara Montessori School is located in Ulsoor, Bangalore. It is one of the best schools in Bangalore when it comes to Montessori method of teaching, school environment, experienced teachers etc

Akshara is run by a lady called Ms. Sophie Sivashankar. She has been teaching for over 40 years. Now thats a lot of experience and she is very well known in the montessori cirlces.

sophie_sivashankar_akshara

Ms.Sophie has maintained a beautiful environment in the school (also has her house in the same premises) with lot of trees, plants etc. She is very passionate about teaching, montessori methods and it shows in her work and also when you talk to her about her work. She is constantly trying to improvize the teaching methods and rigorously trains her teachers. She is also known for her discipline and timeliness.

Akshara Montessori Building

Akshara Montessori Building

Environment inside Akshara Montessori

Inside environment in Akshara

Inside environment in Akshara

Open air class room (in the picture, teachers are seated on a weekend preparing for the coming week)

Open air class room

If you call this environment as good, hold your breath. Sophie has a 5-acre campus near Yelahanka which is the Akshara Primary school. It is built as a model school for Montessori with ample space for children to explore and learn in a more practical way amidst nature. There are some rumors that whole of Akshara has shifted to Yelahanka. Thats not true, its just the primary school. The pre-primary classes continue to be held at Ulsoor.

We are writing this article to promote Akshara because our daughter studied at this school for 4 years and we are extremely happy about what she has learnt there and the person she is today. We would like to share this experience with others in the hope that they find it helpful and benefit from it.

Akshara school address:

Akshara
Montessori House of Children
#15, Thamarai Kannan Road, Murphy Town,
Ulsoor, Bangalore - 560 008
Ph: 080-2554 8280

Google Map showing Akshara school, at Ulsoor

View Larger Map

Related blogs:
Advantages, Disadvantages of Montessori method