It’s not political parties alone which are roping in star campaigners to woo voters now. The Election Commission too is also roping in celebrities for its own purpose.
In order to ensure a better voters’ turnout and more particularly encouraging the physically handicapped persons to vote in large numbers, the EC has though of this unique method. As part of this endeavour, the Cuttack district administration has selected national blind cricket team captain Md Jafar Iqbal as the ‘icon’ to egg on the blind voters of the district to vote in numbers.
“The celebrity blind cricketer would move across the district in the coming days to encourage all the blind voters to exercise their franchise in EVMs confidently,” said an official of the DEO here, adding that special ballot papers are prepared for this purpose. The icon would also participate in the workshops, where he would interact with the blind voters who are not familiar with Braille, the official said.
There are around 22,000 physically-handicapped voters in the district and among them around 3000 are partially or completely blind. Cuttack along with Khordha and Ganjam districts have been identified as pilot districts to implement the Braille signage system to facilitate the blind voters to use EVM to cast their votes independently. According to a survey, all the 14 blocks of the district and the two units of Cuttack city have blind voters in significant numbers and they would be electing nine MlAs and have a say in the election of three MPs in this year’s election. Earlier the blind voters were voting with the assistance of another person, which was not only cumbersome but against the spirit of secret ballot.
Besides, the district administration has also put other facilities in place at booths to facilitate all types of disabled voters. “All the 2,171 booths in the district are designed as disabled-friendly,” said DEO and Collector Girish SN.