Mysuru: For the first time, apart from the disabled people, free pick-up and drop is being arranged for the aged people and pregnant women across all the polling stations, said Shilpa Nag, Commissioner, Mysuru City Corporation. Also, from this year onwards, to maintain the voting privacy of the visually impaired, more Braille enabled voting machines will be available at all the polling booths.
The district electoral authorities are going all-out in their efforts to increase the voting percentage in the coming parliamentary elections. During the last parliamentary elections, the district registered a voter turnout of nearly 66 percent, but now, the authorities want it to increase by 10 percent. For this purpose, they are coming up with various programmes and facilities. In order to improve the voting percentage in the city as well as the district, the Corporation Commissioner, based on the direction from the district electoral authorities, is implementing various facilities including free transportation, magnifying glasses and wheelchairs for the physically challenged people.
Speaking to Newskarnataka.com, Shilpa Nag said, “Across the city itself, we have 285 polling stations and 797 polling booths. Each polling station has two booths. We have planned for a vehicle to provide free pick up and drop for all disabled, pregnant and aged persons to and from every polling station. Earlier, the visually impaired did not have privacy when voting, but now, with the introduction of Braille-enabled EVMs they can maintain their privacy. There are more than 3,500 physically challenged people across the city. To instil confidence in the physically challenged, every constituency will also have disabled-friendly polling booths which will be manned by physically challenged staff. These facilities will be available across the district.”
She added, “Apart from this, during the last election we had pink polling booths. This year, every constituency will have ‘Saki polling booths’ which will be handled by women staff.”
Krishna Hombal, the first visually impaired head of the Political Science Department, Manasagangotri, University of Mysore, said, “During the last election, there were few Braille-enabled EVMs where I voted, but for this election, I came to know that they are providing more of the same. To promote accessibility, it is a step in a positive direction. Before the implementation of the Braille-enabled EVMs, it was like a denial of our right to vote as we had to depend on others to vote. But now we can maintain our voting secrecy. Those who don’t know Braille, however, still need to depend on others.”
Rohini, a pregnant woman said, “It is a very good initiative on the part of the election authorities. After providing all these facilities, we can expect the people to come out to vote in large numbers this election.”
