Sep - Oct | ISSUE 4 | 2009
Dear Yi Colleagues,

The past few months have seen Yi scale up its presence with the opening of 5 new chapters in 60 days: Raipur, Visakhapatnam, Erode, Goa and Srinagar.
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Interaction with Chief Election commissioner of India

Yi organized an interaction for college students and Yi Net Members with Mr. Navin Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner of India on 6 October 2009 at St. Xaviers College, Mumbai. The objective of this interaction was to create an awareness amongst the youth on the important role that they need to play in the electoral process of the country and that they are the indirect ambassadors who can influence the next generation. This was the main emphasis of Mr. Chawla’s address to the students of St. Xaviers College, NMIMS, Government Law College, K J Somaiya College of Commerce, AICAR Business School, Vidyalankar and other institutions who participated in the interaction.
The interaction was a platform where the Hon’ble election commissioner enunciated the prerequisites to the healthy functioning of India’s democracy and reiterated the importance of the Indian voters to be informed about their constituencies and the candidates they vote for. He explained the commission’s role and aim for to bring about a positive change in the voting pattern of the country in the upcoming elections. He also specified on the increasing importance of technology in ensuring fair and transparent elections. Through the interaction Mr. Chawla elaborated on the various procedures that the Election Commission undertakes when planning and preparing for elections, whether they may be Corporation, Assembly or General Elections and the role played by the various authorities in ensuring free and fair elections in the country. The students too took advantage of this unique opportunity and posed a number of questions related to huge expenses incurred by the various political parties in canvassing, issues related to bogus voting, booth capturing, criminal intimidation, use of Ration cards as ID proof due to non-availability of Voter ID Cards, missing names in voter lists etc. Mr Chawla answered all these queries in great detail and invited the youth to set up NGOs or centres in their colleges or campuses to create awareness on all these issues and exhorted them to be the eyes and ears of the Commission and become the nucleus of reform.
 
At this platform Ms. Bhairavi Jani, National Vice Chairperson, Yi gave a brief introduction regarding the activities of Yi and urged the students to participate and provide a platform for Young Indians to participate in and contribute by becoming an integral part of the Indian growth story. She further added that these were the kind of interactions and programmes that Yi conducts for its Members and students, so that they too get a platform to interact and get an opportunity to harness their true potential. The interaction apprised the participants & the students on the key electoral statistics within India and Mr. Chawla extolled the largest democracy of the world with over 814 million voters, where 582 million citizens have been equipped with voter ID cards. He further added that with advancements in technology, the Election Commission too has kept up pace with the changing times and highlighted the use of 89,000 video cameras that were used in the 2009 general elections and the effort of 144,000 micro observers in keeping a check on the various constituencies and candidates.
   
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