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.

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?

Refer the 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://ceo.maharashtra.gov.in

You can do a search by name at the following page (in English or Marathi) or click on the ‘Search Engine’ link:

Search by Name
(Wait patiently as the response time may be slow as there are too many hits to the servers during election time)

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 – West Bengal

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
One more website http://ceotamilnadu.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

‘Good People’ are entering politics

It was very encouraging to see some ‘Good people’ (as I would like to call) coming into politics. It was telecast in a couple of news channels earlier today about a handful of people in corporates and other walks of life entering politics. They are people who, like most of us, are fed up with criminalization of politics, corruption, manipulative politics, votebank politics, lack of politicians with integrity, incompetent politicians etc. They are also people who are NOT just sitting and cursing them, but have decided to get into the system and correct it.

We all know, its a dirty and messy world out there in politics. But these guys have taken the bold step and have shown what is called as “Be the change that you want to see”. There is a ray of hope for many people that the political landscape in India will change for the better over the next 1 to 2 decades with more and more competent and educated people entering politics.

A day will definitely come when the political system will become a lot more accountable, there will be more visibility into whats happening and better citizen participation. A day will come when candidates are selected based on their past achievements, and a system where there is no place for people with criminal records or intent. That day will definitely come………
Read the rest of this entry »

Does car pooling really work

This is a question that has come up in my mind many times now. I have been listening to a campaign being promoted in one of the radio stations, called Radio One 94.3FM, about doing car pooling to help reduce traffic congestion in Bangalore. I certainly identify with the issue and would like to contribute in some way.

The more I think of my contribution, the realization dawns on me that it is going to be very difficult for me to car pool. The reason is that I have a hectic schedule everyday that includes conference calls starting at 08:30pm. It so happens that my work at office extends till about 7 or 7:15pm and I leave for home so I can reach just in time to start my conference calls. With car pooling, the challenge would be to manage these timings with my car pool partner. I wouldn’t want to get delayed for my important conference calls because my car pool partner didn’t make it in time.

The other thought is that it would be easy if you have a car pool group with folks within your own company. Yes, may be. But that could be difficult if you work in a small company like mine which has about 50 employees; because you are less likely to find a good number of people in and around the same place that you stay.

Having said all this, have I given up completely on car pooling? The answer is – NO. I hope to give it a try sometime. I would love to hear from people who have successfully car pooled and I am sure they must have managed some of the issues that I highlighted above.

Note: This is the website that promotes, talks about carpooling in Bangalore

Vote India, vote! Registration closes on March 31, 2009

Voter registration in India for the upcoming elections has started. There was a note from Jaagore.com that I received recently where it was indicated that the registration for voting closes very soon, probably on March 31, 2009. I submitted my application a couple of days back for the C.V.Raman Nagar constituency. I have submitted applications for my family members today. The Voter application is to be submitted at the BBMP office, whose address is given below -

CV Raman Nagar O/o Asst.Revenue Officer (Jeevanbhima Nagar),  Nagendra, A.R.O.
BBMP, 16th A&BMain, HAL 2nd Stage,  Jeevanbhima Nagar
Babasaheb Colony 080-32494454 9880599144

Click here for other Voter application submission centers in Bangalore

Jaagore.com is doing a great job.  They have actually made the entire process of getting registered on the voter’s list so simple.  All you need to do is to fill out an online form(with just a few personal details) and you have a PDF generated for Form-6. Just take a printout of this form, sign it and submit it to the ERO (Election Registration officer). Well, JaagoRe gives you the contact number(cell!) of the ERO. Can you beat that! Once you have got your receipt number, JaagoRe will track your application and let you know the status of it. Can this process be made any more simpler!!!

See http://www.jaagore.com/faq.html#1 page for other details (FAQ) on voter registration. And through this blog, I appeal to every Indian to act now and register yourself to be included in the voters list if not already done. <b>Your one step can change the entire country’s future.

About Jaago Re – Jaago Re! One Billion Votes is a non-partisan campaign to facilitate informed civic participation amongst youth. By simplifying the voter registration process through jaagore.com and enabling youth to be the change agents, Jaago Re! aims to improve the functioning of Indian democracy.