Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
election commission of India

Election Commission of India (ECI) will provide free pick-up and drop facility to disabled voters in upcoming Lok Sabha Polls, a Poll body Official said on Thursday. ECI latest move is seen to encourage voter participation and to increase the voting turnout.

Currently, these voters are carried to the polling booths by some political party, which in return obligate voter to cast their votes in their favor. The ECI wants to avoid it, as there have been instances of conflicts between the supporters of contesting candidates due to this, an ECI Official from Maharastra said.

The Poll body has launched a mobile app known as ‘PWD’ which will be activated in a couple of days. Using the application the voters who have enrolled themselves as persons with disabilities (PWD) can inform the ECI in availing the pick-up and drop service. The application will be soon available on the google play store.

Additional Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra Dilip Shinde said, ‘Ideally political parties should not bring voters to the Booth, This is the first time that ECI has decided to extend this facility that will pick up the voters from their houses and drop them again after they cast their vote.

‘The Facility would be completely free of cost and all cost will be borne by Election Commission of India’ He added whiles saying that it is completely voluntary service if a physically challenged person does not wish to avail that totally his/her choice.

The commission has already roped in several NGOs working for the physically-challenged persons as well as several auto and taxi service providers for the service,” he said. He said the ECI will get to know the number of PwDs through the voters’ list and the polling centers

Another ECI Official said that special campaigns were held especially for visually challenged persons to inform them about the new process. Government officers were also given instructions about how to behave with the PwDs, said another official from the ECI.

The election commission will be organizing state-wide booth level camps on February 23 and 24 to educate voters about VVPAT machines, new voter IDs and other initiatives taken by it, where the voters can even see the list to check their names, the officials said.

Maharashtra has total of 8,73,30,484 voters, of whom 4,57,02,579 are males, while 4,16,25,819 are females. Total of 2,086 voters has been registered as ‘other’. The state has a total of 2,24,162 voters registered as PwD in 48 Lok Sabha Seats across the State.

ALSO READ:

By talharashid

Part-time Traveler| Full-time Political Enthusiast | Foodie | Strong Believer of Freedom of Speech and Expressions!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *