Students hold awareness drive

Students of R V College of Engineering, Mysore Road, held a voters’ awareness campaign on Wednesday at Kengeri Upanagara.

Nearly 60 to 80 students went door-to-door holding placards about the importance of voting and people’s right to vote.

Vinay K S, a mechanical engineering student, said: “While a few residents we approached said they were not interested in voting for any political party, others complained that their names were missing from the voters’ list.

It’s important to make every voter realise the importance of every single vote. Most of the people in cities, especially the educated class, take elections for granted.”

The students also explained the rule that allows a voter to cast a null vote and gives a legal right to the voter to reject all the candidates.

Assistant Professor, R V College of Engineering, Lieutenant S Mahendra Kumar, said:

“Most of the people in cities plan trips on election day thinking their vote will not make any difference. This has to be removed from the minds of the people in order to have a better participation in democracy. It is unfortunate that the average percentage of voting in the City was between 40 and 60 per cent as per the 2008 election statistics,” he added.

The students are planning to intensify their campaign by holding a similar awareness programme in the neighbouring wards of Kengeri Upanagara in the next two days.