Cachar DC unveils VOTE-JI app to attract first time voters, youth

T he Cachar District Administration is keeping no stones unturned in making the voters of the district aware about the upcoming Vidhan Sabha election in Assam. The District Administration has already unveiled several initiatives, like the ‘Poll Express’ a mobile mock polling centre, the election theme song ‘Garv Cachar’, the record-breaking 8 km long Rangoli in the Mahasadak East-West corridor, roping in silver screen actor Debottama Saha as the brand ambassador of the Voters’ Awareness campaign, to woo women and first-time voters in the district.

Now, to attract the youth and the first-time voters into exercising their democratic voting rights, the Cachar Administration has released an Android-based app called ‘VOTE-JI’ to make the netizen voters enthusiastic and aware about the upcoming assembly election.

The official unveiling was done inside the DC office premises today morning by the Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli in presence of the media.

While briefing about the app, the makers of the app said that even though there are official websites and web portals informing about the upcoming election, for the youth, it might get a bit boring and cluttered trying to traverse through those sites. Hence, this app was made to target the first-time voters primarily, and disseminate the required information to the voters of the district, all the while making the experience an interesting one. And when it comes to the youth, they’re very much into smartphones, apps and games. Hence, this initiative aspires to attract that segment of the voters through this ‘VOTE-JI’ app.

During the briefing, the District Administration officials showcased a small test-run of the app on a projected screen, where starting from installing the app from the Google PlayStore to using various features of this app, were shown. The firs-time users of the app just need to sign-up once and then can keep using its feature without having to log in every time a user accesses the app. The app also shows the polling booth of the app user if provided with the name of the constituency that the voter belongs from. Then, to help navigate the concerned voter, Google Maps is there to anchor any voter to his/her designated polling booth.

The app also has features to reward its users through points, the user accumulating the greatest number of points after the end of polling will be felicitated by the District Administration of Cachar.

Talking about the ‘VOTE-JI’ app, DC Keerthi Jalli said, “It is no wonder that sports have always attracted humankind. And this is increasing every day as gaming has become a big educational tool also. Keeping all these in mind, to attract the youth, the first-time voters, the student voters, who usually during polling days make other plans as it’s a holiday, into taking part in the voting, we’ve produced this app called ‘VOTE-JI’ so that they also enthusiastically participate in the entire process of election. Just like PUBG became popular, we too are hoping that VOTE-JI would become popular too. There are various avatars in the app to choose from. And keeping in mind the diversity and traditions of the Cachar district, there are various avatars like Manipuri avatar, Bengali avatar, Assamese avatar, Hindu avatar, Muslim avatar, etc. as to whoever a user wishes to choose from. Then there is this game that they can play, where there are quizzes, various levels to achieve, for which points will be awarded. If a voter attends the polling booth to vote, he/she will get points too after scanning the QR code there. Also, they can also participate in our upcoming events as updates regarding them will be provided in the app itself. So, I request more and more people to come, participate, enjoy the game. This is completely developed by people within Cachar by the Cachar Administration. So, please come and participate and ensure the voting is a success on the 1st of April.”

They also mentioned in the coming days, an iOS version of the app would also be released for the iPhone users of the district. The three districts of the Barak Valley, i.e, Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi goes to poll at the second phase of polling on April 1, 2021.