Your vote counts! Register. Vote. Participate!

Vote, because that's what makes a difference, to get better administration.

“To safeguard democracy, the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness” – Mahatma Gandhi.How often do you complain about the state of affairs in urban governance?

How many times have you thought that the people who are in charge of the governments could do a much better job? How many times have you thought we need to elect better representatives who understand the nuances of the policy frameworks?

We as citizens often forget our power, provided through the Constitution, by the founders of our Republic, to be able to get good, efficient and learned people to represent us in the highest levels of governments.

Article 326 of the Indian Constitution guarantees its citizens, adult suffrage. Any citizen who is no less than 18 years of age can exercise their right to elect representatives to the elected bodies to run the government at various levels such as the Parliament, Legislative Assemblies, Municipal Corporations and the like. Yet, we end up wondering and worrying about the state of affairs in our Cities, States, and Country.

We need to reclaim this right to select and elect the right, capable candidates to represent and protect our interests. This can be achieved only when you get yourself to vote. The first step in doing so is to ensure each of us who are above the 18 years of age, register as a voter.

The process of registration involves taking a few steps from our side and these are not very daunting either. We need to be understood that this effort of ours is a fundamental responsibility as we are able to directly influence, through the exercise of vote, the impact of governance on our lives during the next five years. In the process we ensure that we are the enablers of our democracy and not victims as we often think today.

As a second step, as citizens, we should take get to know the candidates contesting elections in our respective constituencies and try to understand their competencies to represent us. Regardless of our political alignments and preferences, we should raise above them and vote the right candidate.

India is a young democracy; we have traveled a significant distance since independence attending to the basic problems arising out of long stretches of foreign rule. It is time now to shift gears and change the way we are being governed. Over 41% of the Bangalore city population fall in the age bracket of 25- 44 and nearly 15% will be first-time voters.

Democracy works best when it is hands-on and driven through volition. The time has come for the youth of the city to ACT and ACT NOW. For this to happen, we should register as voters and encourage many others to do so.

Our Constitution starts with ‘WE, THE PEOPLE’. This country is ours, the government is ours and through us. For this to be a reality, we need to VOTE. So, let us REGISTER AND VOTE.

Ananda Gundu Rao and Harshitha from Team B.PAC authored this article.

Comments:

  1. Sheikh Ali says:

    By casting our votes we give respectability to people who win the election and begin their job of looting. With regards to political parties all are same with politicians hopping from one party to another.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

Survey on creating safer public transport system for Bengaluru post lockdown

Public transport systems are essential services to provide mobility in cities. However, in the current COVID-19 situation public transport will pose a certain risk due to a large number of people in a confined space with limited ventilation, no access control to identify potentially sick persons and many common surfaces to touched such as ticket machines, handrails, doorknobs to name a few. Life in times of COVID-19 has changed drastically. The pandemic has brought many changes in the way we live our lives and the habits we form, and soon it will also change the way we travel. Crowded buses,…

Similar Story

Survey on first and fast mile connectivity to public transport in Bengaluru by B.PAC

Rapid urbanisation without supportive mass transit and motorisation has led to drastic increase in travel times, loss of productivity and reduced mobility access across travel modes. B.MOBILE is B.PAC’s mobility initiative that works on research, policy advocacy, stakeholder awareness in the areas of sustainable mobility, shared and pooled mobility, nonmotorised transit, para transit including related planning and infrastructure needs for providing seamless and integrated first, middle and last mile connectivity to citizens of Bengaluru. The goal is to push for sustainable mobility for all by encouraging the use of public transport and disincentivising the private vehicles usage. To understand this…