NewsKarnataka-Mangalore
Mangalore, April 3 : Pratijna, a weeklong voter awareness programme initiated by the Department of Mass Communication of St Aloysius College in association with Community Radio Sarang 107.8MHz, Election Commission of India – Dakshina Kannada District Zilla Panchayat SVEEP programme, and Super Souls NGO concluded at TMA Pai Auditorium, Mangalore on Tuesday, April on the lines of an interaction session with former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
The voter awareness campaign was earlier launched on March 26 by DK Zilla Panchayat CEO, Thulasi Maddineni who interacted with the listeners of Community Radio Sarang 107.8MHz and later, with the students of Journalism and Mass Communication of St Aloysius College.
She urged them to be responsible citizens of the nation, by not being cynical and developing a positive outlook towards the prospects of India.
In the course of the week, the students created awareness about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections among various sections of the society including housewives, rickshaw drivers, fishermen, youth, businessmen etc. Pamphlets on voter rights and duties were distributed among the public. A signature campaign was also organized where individuals from different walks of life pledged to vote in the upcoming elections.
Sudeep Shenoy and Jeena Elizabeth John, the event managers for Pratijna visited different departments and administered an oath to the students. Many organizations including Pizza Hut, Cinepolis, Phalguni Cashew Centre, Mango Berrys, Reliance Digital, Kapoor Kulfi, Anya – The Cloth Shoppe, DeNovo, PAMT, Densure etc. promised to support the upcoming elections and create awareness among their employees and customers.
As a part of the campaign, Pratijna also associated with Super Souls, a non-profit NGO consisting of volunteers from various walks of life, who organized Super Sunday at City Centre Mall, Mangalore on March 30. This event was a fun-filled awareness event, with activities like music, dance, games, skit, flash dance, caricatures and artwork sessions. Most importantly, the event put forth a message of responsible voting, wherein the team urged the people to cast their votes responsibly. Pamphlets were distributed as well as pledges were collected by the volunteers who numbered more than 70.
In the course of the campaign, over 3000 pamphlets were distributed, oath was administered to over 800 students and over 1000 pledges were collected.
The student event managers of Pratijna – Sudeep Shenoy and Jeena Elizabeth John had also participated in the interaction session with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. The students then handed over the collected documentation including the oath, signed pledge letters etc. to the district administration.
