Mohali, May 17, 2024: General Election Observer of Anandpur Sahib Dr. Hira Lal today accompanied by Police Observer Sandeep Gajanan Dewan and Expenditure Monitor Shilpi Sinha,  held a meeting with all District Election Officers, SSPs, Assistant Returning Officers, and AROs of the parliamentary constituency Anandpur Sahib at Mohali with the aim of turning the Election Commission of India’s slogan of holding 'Green Election' into reality on the ground. 

To neutralize carbon content generated during the election process, it is asked to plant maximum trees and ensure minimum use of plastic during training, dispatch, and collection of EVMs by polling teams and at counting centers.

He said that in the light of the Election Commission of India's concept of 'Green Election', our slogan should be a free, fair, transparent, and environmentally friendly election process.

He said that for this purpose, where the political parties/candidates should be encouraged not to use 'single-use plastic', the government staff engaged in the election arrangements should also be asked to be a part and ambassador of this 'Green Election' campaign to spread it further.

Elaborating more, General Election Observer Dr. Hira Lal said that when we train the polling staff, we should not scatter garbage at all at that place and take care of cleanliness.

Similarly, on the day, when the polling parties depart from the dispatch centers to the polling booths and later on returning in the next evening to deposit the EVMs, cleanliness should also be maintained on that occasion, and 'single-use plastic' should be avoided permanently.

The Returning Officers/District Election Officers/Assistant Returning Officers and DSPs were asked to implement the green election plan in principle, and necessary guidelines to be given to the polling parties for turning the 'Green Election' campaign into reality at the polling centers.

He also asked the officials besides arranging assured minimum facilities for the voters coming to all the polling booths on the polling day, different types of plants also be made available there in plenty for them so that the voters who came to cast their votes at the polling booths could observe the festival of democracy by planting the saplings in their house or farm.

He said that in this way we will be able to implement the concept of 'Green Election' in its true spirit by planting lakhs of saplings in a day.

Stressing the need to increase the voting percentage during the Lok Sabha elections 2024,  Dr. Hira Lal, who has gained national fame by increasing the voter turnout by 10.5 percent in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 as a District Magistrate in Banda (Uttar Pradesh), said that for this purpose, every Assistant Returning Officer should identify 5-5 booths with the highest voter turnout at Panchayat level, Vidhan Sabha level and Lok Sabha level previously held elections and take details from the concerned booth level officer about the factors used to increase their voter percentage and implement them to the rest of the polling booths this time as well.

On this occasion, he also specially felicitated the booth-level officers, who contributed with the highest voting percentage, of the 09 Vidhan Sabha constituencies falling in the Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency during the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. 

Among them, BLO Jaswinder Singh of Booth No. 132 from Garhshankar (81.80 percent), BLO Surjit Kumar of Booth No. 132 of Banga (78.76 percent), BLO Paramjit Kaur of Booth No. 209 of Nawanshahr (83 percent), BLO Narinder Singh of booth number 160 of Balachaur (88.86 percent), BLO Jaswinder Singh of booth number 41 of Anandpur Sahib (80.70 percent), BLO Phuleswar Kumar (89.29 percent) of booth no. 170 of Rupnagar, BLO Harinder Kaur (78 percent) booth no. 14 of Chamkaur Sahib, BLO Ajay Kumar of booth no. 74 Kharar (85.05 percent) and BLO Harpinderjit Singh (83.54 percent) of Booth No. 86 of SAS Nagar were included.

General Observer Dr. Hira Lal, Police Observer Sandeep Gajanan Dewan, Expenditure Observer Shilpi Sinha, Returning Officer Anandpur Sahib Preeti Yadav, District Election Officer SAS Nagar Ashika Jain, District Election Officer SBS Nagar Navjot Pal Singh Randhawa, SSP Ropar Gulneet Singh Khurana, SSP SAS Nagar Dr. Sandeep Garg, SSP SBS Nagar Dr. Mehtab Singh including the Assistant Returning Officers belonging to the nine assembly constituencies falling in the Parliamentary Constituency also planted saplings as a concept of 'Green Election' in the District Administrative Complex Mohali.

On this occasion, a pledge was also administered by school children and observers and DCs, SSPs, and AROs to plant one sapling each as a conservation of the environment and not to use 'single-use plastic' on polling day.  General Observer also launched a sticker campaign to educate the voters about the supply of domestic gas cylinders on this occasion.