DEVELOPMENTS: ON GROUND EVENTS (APRIL 2009)

ON GROUND EVENT : 1

Debates are being organised between LS candidates, which will be telecast on Sahara Samay from Tuesday onwards. There will be 6 debates held between the major party's candidates from each of Mumbai's constituency. An expert panel will try and put forth an array of 10 subjects which have been shortlisted. This will give us an opportunity to understand how our representatives plan to solve our problems.Also the exercise involves taking commitments from the candidates, wherein they say what promises they intend to deliver upon if elected into power. They also commit to come back post 6 months, for a performance evaluation.

In culmination of these telecasts, on the 26th of April, an open meeting will be held (at Juhu, opposite Hotel Tulip Star@6pm) with the party leaders of these MPs. A similar exercise will be conducted, and they will also be asked for their commitments. It will also involve an exercise wherein ppl will be allowed to submit their own questions and then those questions (after bundling similar questions together) will be directly put forth to these political leaders.

The event is being organised by : JNM, GoG, CTC in association with TOI's Lead India Campaign. The final event will be televised by Sahara Samay & will also be covered by most of the print press media.

If anyone is interested in volunteering for the following events, please feel free to contact me or Jatin.

ON GROUND EVENT : 2

Workshop to mobilize and train citizen volunteers to conduct door-to-door drives in their community / polling booth regions. Following is the plan for Mumbai:

1. We are targeting to mobilize 500+ citizen volunteers across Mumbai city to spend one day prior to polling day (Apr 30) in their community urging their neighbours to go out and vote, giving them their polling booth address and asking them to make an informed choice. We are calling them as Booth Level Volunteers (BLVs). This is similar to Booth Level Agents (BLAs) that political parties deploy for door-to-door campaigning, which is known as the most effective method to get-out-the-vote

2. We will be organizing 4 ground orientation sessions for these BLVs to train them on how to do these drives properly, and also arm them with flyers & adequate information. These are being organized with the support of AGNI. The schedule and locations of these sessions are mentioned in the attachment.

Ground Orientation Sessions for Booth Level Volunteers at Mumbai : (You dont need to contact anyone, just show up at the centre nearest you and enroll)

21st April 2009 - 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. St Anne's High School Hall, C/o Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Marve Road, Malad West Mumbai 400 064.

22nd April 2009 - 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. Salvation HallPortuguese ChurchDadar [W]Mumbai 400 028

24th April 2009 - 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.Lake Castle PodiumBehind Lake Castle BuildingCliff Avenue, Near Reliance WorldHiranandani Garden ComplexPowaiMumbai 400 076

25th April 2009 - 6.00 to 8.00 p.m. Mount Carmel HallNext to St Aloysius School, Opp Leelavati Hospital, Bandra ReclamationMumbai 400 050

Organisers : Janaagraha & GoG