The Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) voters exercised their franchise in a hassle-free manner, thanks to facilities at the model polling station at the Kamala Nehru Municipal Girls High School at Railway New Colony in Visakhapatnam South Assembly constituency on Thursday.
The Department for Disabled Welfare, in association with Prajwal Vani Welfare Society, ensured the facilities at the polling station.
A good number of voters including 156 hearing impaired, 33 with orthopaedic problems and 23 visually challenged had registered their names for exercising their franchise at this polling station.
Wheelchairs were kept ready and volunteers were in attendance to help out the voters.
Apart from the specially erected ramp and carpet laid on it, the railing was decorated with balloons and the school building seemed to have been given a fresh coat of paint, perhaps, to make the voters feel that they were not left behind.
Free transport
Saket Ranjan, a visually challenged man, along with his parents, came to the polling station in an autorickshaw provided by the department, all the way from Madhurawada, at around 7.30 a.m. He seemed to be happy with the arrangements.
Sign interpreters
“Saket, who was living with his parents at New Colony, has shifted to Madhurawada, about 15 km away from the city. Sign language interpreters assisted the hearing impaired voters. Assistants helped the voters while latter exercising their franchise,” Prajwal Vani Welfare Society president K.V.L. Suchitra Rao told The Hindu.
Ms. Suchitra Rao, organisation president V. Harish and other members were seen assisting the voters too.
Prior to the elections, the organisation had helped around 44,000 PwD voters in the district to register their names as part of awareness campaigns organised in the last one month.
“The maximum number of PwDs registered at this polling station. We are providing wheelchairs, volunteers and autorickshaws for picking them up from their homes and dropping back. The idea is to provide accessibility to the voters to their democratic rights, in sync with the objective of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that no voter is left behind,” Disabled Welfare Assistant Director P. Venkateswara Rao said.