Chandigarh, May 3 : To increase voter turnout in the Lok Sabha elections slated on May 25 in Haryana, the Chief Electoral Officer's office on Thursday launched a new initiative involving schoolchildren, who will be rewarded with cash prizes.

Under this initiative, children will be encouraged to motivate their parents to vote, and on the voting day, they will be required to upload a selfie of their family members after the voting.

At the district level, cash prizes of Rs 10,000, Rs 5,000, and Rs 2,500 will be awarded to the first, second, and third winners by conducting a draw of lots.

Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said under this initiative, the school having the maximum number of selfies uploaded by their students will also be awarded a special prize of Rs 25,000.

A link has been developed on the https://www.ceoharyana.gov.in/ portal for uploading selfies, which will be available on the voting day, i.e., May 25.

The link for uploading selfies will be open for children along with voting from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Agarwal said the aim of this initiative is not only to increase voter turnout but also to make schoolchildren, who will be future voters, aware of their voting rights. The Chief Electoral Officer said more than two crore registered voters in Haryana, including 1,06,34,532 men, 94,06,357 women, and 464 transgenders.

He said the number of voters in Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency is the highest at 25,66,159, while in Faridabad it is 24,24,281.

In the Ambala Lok Sabha seat, there are 19,92,252 voters, in Kurukshetra 17,92,160, in Sirsa 19,34,614, in Hisar 17,88,710, in Karnal 21,00,439, in Sonipat 17,64,954, in Rohtak 18,86,796 and in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh there are 19,90,988 voters.

/IANS