Mangalore, Apr 15: Using a banner in the skies to motivate electorates to vote, paraglider Nikolai Singh from Shillong is set to sail high in the city and outskirts of Mangalore on Tuesday.
With the state gearing up for its Assembly polls on May 5, this man has been called upon by the State Election Commission (SEC) as part of the Systematic Voters' Education And Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme to fly over the districts in Karnataka with a view to encourage people living in villages and remote areas to exercise their votes in these elections.
President of Meghalaya Paragliding Association, Mr Singh will fly low over the city of Mangalore and its surroundings in his paramotor trike for a duration of two hours from 7 a.m. onwards on Tuesday, provided that the weather and winds were feasible.
Speaking to mediapersons in Kenjar near here, he said that the paramotor would enable him to cover a radius of 150-200 kilometres in three hours. The paramotor trike can fly between five feet to 18,000 feet, depending on the weather conditions. This equipment will be helpful from the elections' point of view as it enables one to fly low over villages so that the banner is visible and drop down pamphlets educating people on the need to vote. So one can cover over 10-15 villages per day, although no pamphlets will be dropped this time in the state, he said.
Prior to the Assembly polls in Meghalaya in October 2012, District Commissioner Praveen Bakshi had authorised the use of a paramotor trike to ensure greater percentage of voter participation, and was even nominated for the Presidential Award for this initiative, he said.
In Karnataka, this initiative was flagged off in Bangalore on April 7. After a stint in Mangalore, the team members belonging to the association will move to cover Udupi district next.
Mr Singh said that he was supporting the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) unit of CRPF to help them in search operations for naxals in the North-Eastern states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. “The trike was also useful in tracking poaching activities in Kaziranga National Park. So far I have worked only for the government, and haven't touched the corporate sector yet,” he said.
Arriving at the spot, DK District Commissioner Harsh Gupta said that it was a novel method to encourage more voter participation in the upcoming elections. “It creates excitement among people, and builds the tempo for the big event,” he said, adding that sections of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were deployed to ensure that the people felt more secure in the days leading to the polls.
On the occasion, 23 personnel belonging to the CISF had arrived to provide security during the stint. Having initially planned to glide over the region on Monday evening, the paraglider however was unable to take-off in his trike citing gusty winds and clouds at a low altitude.
Comments
Add new comment