Eco-friendly Ganesha celebrations become platform for voter awareness

The Mandya district administration and District Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) Committee organised a voter awareness programme under the ‘Young Ganesha’ concept, combining Gauri-Ganesha festival celebrations with a message on electoral participation.

As part of the programme, Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) were symbolically distributed to newly registered young voters following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls-2026. A rangoli highlighting SIR-2026 and various other SVEEP activities were also organised.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Kumar said it was the responsibility of everyone to celebrate the Gauri-Ganesha festival in an environment-friendly manner. He urged people to install clay idols and avoid Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols to protect the environment.

He said young voters had an important role to play in a democratic system and the ‘Young Ganesha’ initiative was aimed at creating voter awareness among them while celebrating the festival. He urged every person who had attained the age of 18 to enrol as a voter.

During the SIR process, around 1.60 lakh names of deceased, bogus and duplicate voters were removed from the electoral rolls in the district, the Deputy Commissioner said. The process of enrolling new voters had now begun, with more than 1,000 applications already received.

“Our objective is to ensure that no eligible young voter is left out and to prepare a healthy and clean electoral roll,” Dr. Kumar said. Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer and District SVEEP Committee chairperson K.R.

Nandini said innovative activities were being organised to ensure that SVEEP programmes directly reached young voters rather than remaining confined to conventional methods. Recently, a singing competition was organised at Mandya University for eligible voters aged above 18.

A differently abled student had written the lyrics and composed music on the SIR process and performed the song along with friends. The song has now been adopted as the district’s SVEEP awareness song, she said. As a continuation of such initiatives, voter awareness activities were being organised during the Gauri-Ganesha festival in association with the City Municipal Council under the concepts of ‘SVEEP Gauri’ and ‘Young Voter Ganesha’, Ms.

Nandini said. The programme was designed to attract the attention of young voters and convey the message: “My right, my responsibility, my vote — I will register.” Students, young voters, municipal officials and members of the District SVEEP Committee were present.