PANAJI
The Election Commission has identified around 8,300 Persons with Disabilities (PwD) who will exercise their franchise at the upcoming assembly elections.
There are 499 Divyang Mitras appointed to assist in the identification of PwDs.
The State Steering Committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Electoral Officer Kunal in a meeting at the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer Altinho on Friday had discussion about facilitating voters who are PwD.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Narayan Sawant, Additional Collector (South) Sanjth Rodrigues, Additional Collector (North) Mamu Hage, representatives from NGOs DRAG, Gujarati Samaj, Disha Charitable Trust, Lokvishwas Pratisthan and St Xavier Academy were present at the meeting.
The committee decided to hold awareness programmes in all 40 constituencies for marking PwD voters with the help of NGOs.
The NGOs assured that they would participate in the access audit of polling booths and will also provide a list of profoundly disabled persons.
Sudesh Gaude, Nodal Officer for Accessible Election, informed that around 8,300 persons with disabilities are marked, adding that 499 Divyang Mitra have been appointed who will assist in the identification of PwDs in their respective booths and access audit at polling booths.
Chief Electoral Officer Kunal appealed to NGOs to assist in the enrolment of more PwDs.
NGOs will enrol the person with disabilities who do not have a disability certificate on the Unique Disability ID (UDID) portal so that hospitals concerned will give appointments to enable the person with disabilities to get a disability certificate.
The Committee also decided that the PWD would inspect booths for accessibility and ensure that each booth has a ramp with proper gradient, besides facilities of accessible toilets for PwDs.
PWD officials have to involve Booth Level Officers and NGOs working for PwDs.
The office of the CEO has also created awareness videos with accessibility features such as the use of sign language interpreters. NGOs will assist in the dissemination of the information to the PwDs who will exercise their franchise.
