To ensure that the specially-abled or Divyaang voters are able to cast their votes without the least of difficulty, the Election Commission team convened a meeting with the officers of the departments concerned on Thursday. The team also asked the CEO to take the polling percentage to 80 per cent from the last time turnout figure of 67 per cent. The team members said they would launch mobile app, which will have information about the available facilities at each of the polling booths.
To ensure arrangement for the Divyaang at the polling booths, DEOs have been asked to prepare a list of the Divyaang polling booths. To enable the Divyaang to vote, ramps would be made available at the polling booths. Besides, the team asked the power department to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the election process while asking the chief secretary to be active on the matter. To avoid confusion, EC would use VVPAT (voter verifiable paper add trail) by which the voters can see whether their votes are cast the intended way. Along with the Divyaang, the EC stressed on the participation of the special tribe like van gujjar in the electoral process. CEO has been asked to do mapping of the community at the booth levels. Blind schools, labour schools and sanatoriums should be used to encourage the people to vote, the EC team said .
DEOs have been asked to take all measures to ensure law and order in their jurisdictional limits. They have been told to execute the pending orders related to election and also to identify the vulnerable polling booths. It is learnt that the number of such polling booths stands at 350 presently.
The team emphasized on the functioning of the police stations being constantly monitored, saying that the efficient police station officers can do a lot to ensure free and fair election. DGP has been specially asked to deploy the competent officers to man the police stations. The team made it clear that if the inspector is available the inspector incharge should not be allowed to run the stations. Besides, they asked the police top brass to carefully check the competence level of the police officers before they are deployed on election duty.
EC also convened a meeting with other enforcement agencies like Income Tax, Excise, Narcotics and Transport department. It has been noticed that during the election, the candidates tend to lure the voters by giving money or liquor or narcotic substances. In view of this, all the departments concerned have been asked to be vigilant to stop misuse of money, liquor and narcotics.