10,000 students expected to attend voter awareness workshop in Greater Noida

The one-day workshop is being organised by the election commission and the district administration

Ahead of the state polls, as many as 10,000 students from Gautam Budh Nagar are expected to attend a one-day workshop on voter awareness, organised by the election commission (EC) and the district administration on January 23.

Students from Knowledge Park institutes such as Sharda University are expected to attend the event. (HT File Photo)

The event will be organised at Expo Mart centre in Greater Noida and is an attempt to create awareness ahead of the polling, which is to be held on February 11 in the district.

Students from Knowledge Park institutes such as Sharda University, Galgotia University, IIMT group of colleges, GNIT, and NIT are supposed to attend the event that will begin from 4pm on January 23.

To look into the preparations for the event, district magistrate NP Singh held a meeting with college, university and school representatives of Greater Noida on Thursday.

“Our priority is to ensure that all voters in the district realise the true potential of their vote and exercise their voting rights. They should be aware of their rights and about the democratic process,” said Singh.

Students will perform various street plays and skits in the event to encourage people to vote. “We have informed the representatives of the institutes that if their students want to contribute to the workshop through creative means, they should inform the district administration beforehand. We are trying to include as many students as possible,” said Singh.

There are around 18,276 registered voters in the age group of 18-19 years and 3,26,871 in the age group of 20-29 years in the district.

The district administration has been making efforts in the past three to four months to include the maximum number of young voters in the voters’ list. This is also for the first time that a model polling booth will be set up inside a private university for the 5,000 registered young voters at Knowledge Park.

“Our university will host the model polling booth and we have been trying for months to include 18-19 year olds in the voter list by organising various street plays and other drills,” said Ajit Garg, a spokesperson for Sharda University.