Election Commission launched Matadata Junction

Tags: National National News

The Election Commission launched Matadata Junction, a year-long voter awareness program on All India Radio on October 3.

Important facts

• Matadata Junction was launched in a program organised at Akashvani Rang Bhawan, New Delhi.

• Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar inaugurated the program in the presence of Election Commissioner of India Anoop Chandra Pandey, CEO Prasar Bharati Mayank Kumar Agarwal.

• DG AIR News Vasudha Gupta and actor Pankaj Tripathi, who is an ECI state icon, were present on the occasion.

About Matadata Junction

•  Under this, 52 episodes of 15 minutes duration will be telecast every Friday on Vividh Bharati stations, FM Rainbow, FM Gold and primary channels of All India Radio.

• Each program will be based on a specific theme on the electoral process.

• All 52 themes aim to encourage all eligible citizens, especially young and first-time voters.

• Quiz, interviews with experts, and songs produced by EC's SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) team will be played in every episode.

• The program includes a Citizens' Corner where any citizen can ask questions or make suggestions on any aspect of voting.

Matadata Junction will be conducted in 23 languages

• 23 languages are - Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili & Dogri.

Election Commission of India

• It is a permanent and independent body established by the Constitution of India to ensure free and fair elections in India.

• It was established as per the Constitution on 25 January 1950.

• It administers the elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Assemblies, State Legislative Councils and the President and Vice President of the country.

• It has nothing to do with elections to panchayats and municipalities in the states. For this the Constitution of India provides for a separate State Election Commission.

• Basically there is only one Chief Election Commissioner in the Election Commission.

• Currently it consists of two Election Commissioners.

• The President appoints Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.

• They have a tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years.