Jharkhand gets national award of ‘Best Performing State’ for its excellent performance in elections-OxBig News Network

President Droupadi Murmu giving away the award to Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar at Zorawar Auditorium, Manekshaw Center, New Delhi on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

For the first time, Jharkhand received the National Award for ‘Best Performing State’ for its excellent performance in elections.

Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K. Ravi Kumar was honoured by President Droupadi Murmu in the national-level programme organised on National Voters’ Day at Manekshaw Center in New Delhi on Saturday (January 25, 2025).

Expressing his happiness over the award, Mr. Ravi thanked all the voters of the State, all the booth level officials (BLOs) engaged in election work, all the polling personnel, police officers, security forces personnel, political parties and media persons for discharging their duties during the election.

“The credit for the free, fair and peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections 2024 goes to all the stakeholders of the election work. Today, the State has achieved this due to the combined efforts of all of us,” Mr. Ravi said while speaking to the media post award ceremony.

He has carried out many innovations in Jharkhand during the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections held in 2024. An attempt was made to make the voters list integrated, inclusive and with zero errors.

Under this, the BLO verified the voters of each house several times and pasted stickers on their houses. Special campaigns were run for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) voters to add them to the voters list.

At the same time, arrangements were made for assured minimum facilities at the polling stations for the voters like electricity, water, toilets, wheelchairs and ramps for visually impaired and senior citizen voters.

Along with the construction of polling stations in their villages for the voters of remote areas, vehicles were also arranged for polling stations more than two kilometres away. Even in the Maoist-affected areas, voters voted peacefully for the first time in these elections.

For smooth voting process, vehicles were used for polling without disrupting the general traffic through the vehicle management system. For the convenience of voters at polling booths, more than 1.2 lakh volunteers were trained, who played an important role in queue management and for elderly and handicapped voters.

For peaceful voting, all checkpoints were equipped with CCTV cameras and polling booths were monitored by webcasting inside and outside.

To raise awareness among voters, hashtag campaigns were run on internet, media and under the Election Commission’s flagship SVEEP initiative at a large scale.

Booth level awareness groups were also formed at all polling booths, through which voters were motivated to vote. Due to the awareness campaign, the voting percentage in the Lok Sabha election increased and the highest voting percentage also gained in the subsequent Assembly polls.