Daijiworld Media Network- Karwar

Karwar, Mar 19: The Karwar district administration has taken a rare step in creating awareness about voting by opting to scuba diving.

On Saturday March 17, deputy commissioner (DC) SS Nakul, who is also the district returning officer, decided to dive in the Arabian Sea off the Karwar coast to distribute voter identity cards to millennium voters of Uttara Kannada district.

The DC took this unique route of scuba diving to distribute voter identity cards to 13 first time voters of Uttara Kannada district, all born on the first day of the millennium, January 1, 2000.

The DC who was joined by zilla panchayat CEO L Chandrashekar Naik and scuba diving instructor Ranjith Poonja at Devabhag Beach jumped under 15 feet water in the sea to issue voter ID cards. Four of the 13 millennium voters’ jumped into the deep sea water and received the enlarged replicas of their voter identity cards from the DC. The actual voter ID cards were distributed recently.

The main intention of the initiative undertaken by the Election Commission of India in association with the district administration and the Scuba Diving and Aero Sports Training Centre of Karwar was to create awareness about importance of voting.

Nakul has been visiting his district ahead of assembly elections to educate all the eligible voters.