Pune: District Collector Dr Rajesh Deshmukh Receives ‘Best Electoral Practices Award’ From President Draupadi Murmu
Pune, 25th January 2023: Pune District Collector Dr Rajesh Deshmukh was felicitated by President Draupadi Murmu for adopting excellent practices in the election process. Dr Deshmukh was honored with the ‘Best Electoral Practices Award’ at the national level today.
On behalf of the Election Commission of India, an award distribution program was organized on the occasion of the 13th National Voter’s Day at Manekshaw Auditorium in the Delhi Cantonment area. President Draupadi Murmu, Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of State for Law and Justice SP Baghel, Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey were present.
On this occasion, state, and district-level officials who have performed outstandingly in the election voting process in various parts of the country were honored with national awards.
Election Commission of India’s concept for this year is ‘If nothing is as precious as voting, we will guarantee the right to vote’. On this occasion, the song ‘Main Bharat Hun’ produced by renowned director Subhash Ghai was performed.
After accepting the award, Dr Rajesh Deshmukh expressed his happiness in receiving the award. He said, “The hard work done by our team in Pune district in the last two years regarding voter list and elections has been rewarded today. All our team has been presented with this award through me.”
Efforts have been made during the last two years to clean up the voter list and remove the errors as per the directions of the Election Commission of India. It worked on more than seven lakh residential voters. Similarly, as per the instructions of the Election Commission, a special campaign was conducted for women voters, and transgender voters and special camps were also organized to make the voter list comprehensive.
Voter registration was conducted by organizing general camps in 442 colleges on November 25 and December 5 to register voters. He said that 48,000 youths were registered as voters.
He paid special attention to increasing the participation of youth in voter registration and voter registration of women in the Pune district. Aiming to involve the disadvantaged sections in the electoral process, a special campaign was undertaken for voter registration of transgender voters, disabled voters, and commercial sex workers.
Camps organized in colleges for voter registration also received good responses from the youth. A program for strengthening the Election Literacy Board was conducted in schools and colleges in association with the Chief Electoral Officer of the State.
The Election Commission has specially honored the initiative taken by the Collector for transgender voter registration as well as for disabled voters. District Collector took the special initiative for voter registration in the industrial sector. About 2,500 large and small industries in the industrial estate of the district were reached and voter registration was done. Efforts were made for voter registration by appointing co-ordinating officers at industrial sites and establishing voter awareness teams in industries.
Collector Dr Deshmukh was earlier also honored with an award for his good performance in the PM Kisan Yojana in the district. While he was the Chief Executive Officer of Satara, he received an award for his good performance in the PM Awas Yojana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
On this occasion, the first copy of the book ‘Electing the First Citizen – An Illustrated Chronicle of India’s Presidential Election’ was gifted to the President. A total of 13 national awards were distributed by the President.
