The Fact News Service
Ludhiana, April 25
Additional District Election Officer-cum Additional Deputy Commissioner (G), Major Amit Sareen on Wednesday directed nodal officers to ensure the active participation of persons with disabilities (PwD), elderly voters above 85 and pregnant women in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024. He ordered the officers to check all the polling booths for ensuring essential assistance provisions, including wheelchair facilities, ramps, and railing, proper access to drinking water and toilets, and shelters there.
During a meeting of the District Monitoring Committee on Accessible Election, the Additional Deputy Commissioner (G) accompanied by District Social Security Officer Varinder Singh Tiwana, said that the nodal officers must coordinate with their respective Assistant Returning Officers and submit the report after inspecting the facilities in all polling booths.
Separate queues will be made for PWD voters and elderly voters above the age of 85 years at polling stations, and four volunteers in each polling booth would be deployed to assist them. There are 2919 polling stations/booths at a total of 1410 polling locations. The district has 16793 PWD voters, with the Gill constituency having a maximum of 1899 PWD voters and the Ludhiana central assembly segment having the least number of 506 PWD voters.
On directions of District Election Officer (DEO) Sakshi Sawhney, ADC Major Amit Sareen said that all efforts are being made to facilitate PWD and elderly voters on the polling day. Wherever required, pick and drop (transportation) facilities would also be provided to the PWD voters. ADC Major Sareen said that the aim of district administration was to ensure maximum participation and to achieve the target of more than 70 per cent voter turnout during the Lok Sabha-2024 elections. (Iss Baar, 70 Paar). Voter awareness activities were also being conducted across the district and all steps were being taken to facilitate the voters at the polling stations.
District Icons for PWD voters, including International para-badminton players Ashwani Kumar, his wife Shabana, and an international para-table tennis player Shubham Wadhwa also urged all PWD voters to exercise their right to franchise on voting day (June 1).
