PANAJI: GOACAN (Goa Civic and Consumer action Network) as part of its 'Making Democracy Work' campaign will launch an initiative to mobilise young voters to attend and participate in the gram sabha meetings of the village panchayats of Goa. In a first effort GOACAN volunteers from various civic and consumers forums will approach sarpanchas to issue `welcome letters' to all youth from the village who receive their voter cards as new young voters in 2020. This initiative being launched by GOACAN on National Voters Day (January 25) will focus on distributing draft `welcome letters' to the sarpanch of the Village Panchayats with an appeal to issue the same to all the new young voters. The welcome letter informs the youth that being on the electoral roll as a voter automatically makes them members of the village panchayat gram sabha. This entitles the youth to attend and actively participate in the four ordinary meetings of the gram sabha being held in April, July, October and January during the financial year April 2020 to March 2021. The youth can also attend and actively participate in the four special meetings of the gram sabha being held on August 15, October 2, December 19 and January 26. The letter seeks the assistance of the new young voter in the activities of the various committees of the village panchayat on subjects like road safety and traffic management, biodiversity management and health and sanitation among others. The letter also encourages the new young voter to assist the Village Development Committee (VDC) of the village panchayat which has the challenging task of preparing the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP). Lastly the letter reminds the new voters that the youth of today are the future of the village and appeals to them to extend whatever assistance they can provide especially their knowledge, skills and time for the development and progress of their village. This 60-day initiative of GOACAN will carry on till the convening of the first gram sabha meeting in April for 2020-2021 and will monitor the attendance and participation of the new young voters in various village panchayats in the 12 talukas of Goa.