From SMSes to posters,ALMs & citizen groups go all out to ensure high turnout

Colaba and Cuffe Parade areas,which traditionally see the lowest voter turnout in the city,are dotted with Colaba Advanced Locality Management (CALM) posters asking residents to vote. Less than a year after being the target of the 26/11 attacks,the Colaba assembly constituency still showed the poorest turnout with only 35.85 per cent as compared to the city’s average of 46 per cent. CALM has put up these posters along with Action for Good Governance and Networking in India.

Ashok Kanwar of the Cuffe Parade Residents Association said each building will have one coordinator who will be entrusted with the responsibility of calling up all the residents in his or her building. “On the polling day,the cordinator will make a call to each flat to check whether the residents have voted. We are also spreading the word through posters. We have put up these posters across A ward,right from Marine Drive up to Navy Nagar. We are also printing these posters in our inhouse journal Cuffe Paradian,” he said.

Similarly,the Malabar Hills residents are also doing their bit. Indrani Malkani of the V Citizens Action Network said that wards 213 and 214 in the Malabar Hill assembly constituency are known to have poor voter turnout. “We are going to distribute leaflets and pamphlets in the area,put up boards in the buildings and send out emails and Facebook messages asking people to vote,” she said. Wards 213 and 214 comprise Forjet Hill,Babulnath Temple,Chowpatty areas.

Ram Ajoomal,president of the Peddar Road Residents Association,said the organisation is planning to send volunteers door-to-door to urge people to vote and are also putting up notices in each building.