EC appoints observers to facilitate disabled voters

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, April 10

In a bid to facilitate the disabled voter, the Election Commission (EC) has appointed accessibility observers to help the differently abled to exercise their vote.

BC Badalia, Divisional Commissioner, who has been appointed as an observer, took stock of the facilities for the differently abled voters at various polling booths in the district last evening.

The EC has specially appointed them to encourage the differently abled voters to participate in the poll process and they are supposed to ensure that such people do not face any difficulty while casting their vote.

He directed the District Returning Officer to ensure that all basic facilities were made available to them. They were supposed to be provided wheel-chairs and ramps, besides an assistant at the booth.

A District Monitoring Committee on Accessible Elections, under the chairmanship of the District Election Officer and comprising CMO, Deputy Directors of Higher and Elementary Education, District Welfare Officer, Executive Engineer, PWD, and three other members, has been constituted today to evaluate the measures taken for the persons with disabilities.

As per directions of the EC, a separate list comprising disabled voters and their polling station is supposed to be prepared by officials. Such voters would be given preference in obtaining facilities at the polling stations and all possible steps are to be taken to ensure that they do not wait in a queue.

The visually impaired voters will be provided the facility of voice SMS to convey information like the status of registration, polling station number, name, serial number in the voter list, the constituency in which such voters are registered, etc.