Patiala News:District Election Officer issues instructions regarding SIR-2026 and voter awareness activities

A meeting was held today by the Honorable District Election Officer, Patiala with the heads of the following educational institutions and Assembly constituency level SWEEP Nodal Officers/ELC Coordinators regarding special cursory correction, Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC) and voter awareness activities. SWEEP Nodal Officer, Mr. Savinder Rekhi and Mr. Vijay Kumar, Election Tehsildar, Patiala were also present in this meeting.

During the meeting, the District Election Officer laid special emphasis on activating Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC) in educational institutions and creating awareness among students about the election process. The main objective of ELC is to provide information to students, especially prospective voters, about voter registration, election process, EVM and VVPAT, importance of voting and exercising the right to vote in an ethical manner.

Educational institutions were instructed to conduct various awareness activities for ELC from 10th October to 15th October for creating voter awareness among the youth through ELC clubs such as mock poll, EVM/VVPAT introduction, quiz, debate, poster making, slogan writing, essay competition and voter awareness session etc. In this regard, 1 activity calendar is being issued by this office. It should be ensured that sweep/ voter awareness activities are conducted as per the calendar issued by ELC clubs.

The District Election Officer specifically informed that on November 2, the Election Commission of India will organize a state level event in Patiala to create voter awareness in ELC clubs. For this, all the heads and nodal officers of all the educational institutions were specially instructed to prepare a total of 04 students and 02 coordinators/nodal officers from among the talented students of their respective institutions for this event.

Apart from this, eligible students of 18 years of age or above based on the eligibility date of 01 October 2026 were asked to explain the importance of the new vote and to create awareness about casting the vote.

Assembly constituency level SWEEP Nodal Officers and ELC Coordinators were instructed to ensure the establishment of ELCs in all the concerned schools, colleges and universities and their active functioning. Along with this, it was also asked to appoint Nodal Officer/Convenor for ELC in each institution and provide necessary training to the teachers.

SWEEP Nodal Officers were asked to conduct door-to-door awareness campaigns through BLOs and Booth Awareness Groups and to inform citizens about the SIR process, voter registration, correction, verification and other voter services.

On this occasion, instructions were given to conduct special awareness activities for women, senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and other vulnerable and marginalized sections and to ensure access to voter services even in remote and less accessible areas.

In addition, special attention was paid to polling booths with low voting percentage and newly eligible young voters aged 18-19.

The meeting also issued instructions to identify a prominent personality from each assembly constituency related to the field of sports, arts, education and social service as the SWEEP Icon. It was asked to ensure that the personality to be selected does not directly or indirectly campaign in favor of or against any political party.

The District SWEEP Team and concerned officers were asked to disseminate official voter awareness materials, e-posters, videos, information regarding special camps and voter services to maximum people through social media and digital platforms.

The District Election Office appealed to all educational institutions, government departments, NGOs, youth clubs, self-help groups and community organizations to play an active role in the voter awareness campaign, so that democratic participation can be further strengthened and the objective of “Every vote matters” and “No eligible voter is left behind” can be realized.