ECI asks to provide adequate facilities for voters in NE states

Agartala, Jan 17 (UNI) The Election Commission of India(ECI) has issued instructions to the poll-bound Northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland to provide special facilities for the physically challenged voters.

Official sources said here today that according to the ECI guidelines, special arrangements should be made to ensure that all polling stations were located at the ground floor and ramps were provided.

The ECI further instructed that facilities should also be provided for locating the voter's name against a polling station or a group of polling stations through helplines and facilitation centres in all 2,372 polling stations of Tripura, 1,582 of Meghalaya and 1,586 of Nagaland.

Election department officials said as per the ECI guidelines, the polling parties would be formed randomly, through special software and a three-stage randomisation would be adopted.

''First, from a wider district database of eligible officials, a shortlist of about 150 per cent of the required numbers will be randomly picked and the groups will be trained for polling duties while in the second stage, from this trained manpower,actual polling parties shall be formed by random selection software in the presence of ECI Observers. In the last stage, the polling stations will be allocated just before the polling party's departure by random number generation,'' state Chief Electoral Officer Dr G S G Ayyanger said.

Altogether 18,000 employees, including Central government officials, would be appointed for the forthcoming elections as the department was trying to avoid using the services of teachers in the election process, Dr Ayyanger informed.

As part of sustainable, communication plan, District Election Officers were asked to prepare a comprehensive district election plan, including communication plan, using multi-mode resources such as landline telephones, mobile telephones, wireless sets, to facilitate effective monitoring and control on the day of poll and to open Help Lines/Control Rooms in each AC for the convenience of electors.

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