TIRUNELVELI
Following the ‘access audit’ conducted in the polling stations to make every booth accessible to the physically challenged voters, the district administration has started rectification work wherever it is required.
To make every polling booth accessible to voters with disability and the fragile senior citizens, Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish ordered the officials to conduct ‘access audit’ to assess if the booths are easily approachable for these voters or not and also the corrective measures to be taken at the earliest in case of any hurdles there.
Ms. Shilpa said voters with physical disability would have to caste their votes in the booths located in 1,382 polling stations, as per the information provided in the electoral rolls. Ramps with handrails are available in almost all polling stations in the district. Even then, one more round of ‘access audit’ is being conducted to transform the polling booths as ‘disabled-friendly’.
Besides keeping ready a minimum of one wheelchair each in these polling stations, volunteers would be deployed there from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to help the physically challenged voters and the fragile senior citizens coming to the booth to cast their votes.
To fine-tune this exercise further, Aayikudi-based Amar Seva Sangam, which works for the betterment or improving the living conditions of persons with disabilities, was roped in to conduct the ‘access audit’ in the polling stations. As per this arrangement, Amar Seva Sangam representatives inspected the polling stations to find if they are really disabled-friendly.
“Based on the report submitted by them, we’ve started taking corrective measures. Since the Amar Seva Sangam people opined that some of the ramps were steep, rectification works are on to make the structures user-friendly. Our objective is that the physically challenged voters and the fragile senior citizens should get into the booths effortlessly to cast their votes and leave the booth without any hassle,” Ms. Shilpa said.