Voter slips in braille and many other firsts in the Himachal assembly elections 2017

A ‘Booth Atlas’ has been prepared and voters can get it from the EC website.

Apart from the use of voter-verified paper audit trail, the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections 2017 will also witness differently abled people and women manning 5 and 136 booths respectively.

These are some of the firsts that the elections at Himachal will witness.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pushpendra Rajput said on Tuesday the Election Commission had already announced about two polling stations in each constituency (total 68) being manned by women. Rajput said that now it had been decided that disabled people would be in-charge of five booths. "Most of these people have themselves volunteered to make a new beginning, which is a welcome step," he said.

The EC has also decided to issue voter slips to visually impaired people in braille. Blind people should be able to cast their vote without any problem and hence some booths would also be in braille, Rajput said.

The EC has already mapped all the booths where disabled and old people will vote and has assured them of all facilities. A 'Booth Atlas' has been prepared and voters can get it from the EC website.

Rajput said there would be an adequate deployment of paramilitary forces, police and home guards to ensure fair and smooth voting. "The inter-state border points have been covered under CCTV camera and vigil has been upgraded. More than 80 per cent of the weapons have been deposited by their holders," he said.

OneIndia News