4/11/2014

Gmail - Ensure All Possible Facilities are provided in Polling Booth for Disabled Voters

Satyendra Thakur <satyendra.ec@gmail.com>

Ensure All Possible Facilities are provided in Polling Booth for Disabled Voters
1 message Satyendra Thakur <satyendra.ec@gmail.com> Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 1:30 PM To: ChiefElectoralOfficer Mp <chiefelectoralofficermp@gmail.com>, Control Room CEO Office <ceomplok09@gmail.com>, ceo_madhyapradesh@eci.gov.in Dear Election Commissioner, I write to you to draw your attention to important matter regarding making polling stations more disabled-friendly. It is important that every eligible voter is our country gets chance to use his/her vote in election, however Election commission steps to give facilities for 19 million eligible person with disability have not been satisfactory. This, despite Supreme Court ruling where it directed Election commission to make polling station accessible to voters with Disabilities. The office of the CEO of Delhi has provided for the registration of persons with disabilities and their nature of disability on a website. Sign language experts have been put on standby at each of the polling stations to aid the hearing impaired. They have also sought the help of non-governmental organisations and hospitals for providing wheelchairs for voters with physical disabilities. Steps have been taken to ensure special care for the visually impaired, and other disabled person. While your office might have taken some steps but many essential facilities for Disabled Voters are missing in polling booth. Given that we are a democracy, voice of one and all should be recorded through voting, hence I request you to please take necessary steps and deploy facility in every booth to enable voters with disability to exercise their vote and participate in this democratic process. Following are the provisions present in THE DRAFT RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES BILL, 2012 which is pending in parliament but can be used to know what facility should be provided. 19. Right to Political Participation (1) The Election Commission of India and the State Election Commissions shall ensure that all polling stations are accessible to persons with disabilities and that all materials related to the electoral process are easily understandable by and accessible to persons with disabilities. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions contained in subsection (1), the measures undertaken by an Election Commission in pursuance of that subsection shall include: a. the construction and availability of ramps at all polling booths; b. separate queues for persons with disabilities at all polling booths with clear pictorial signs; c. the availability of ballot papers and/ or electronic voting machines with candidates information available in Braille and other accessible formats; d. the fitting of audio devices to electronic voting machines; e. training programs to sensitize polling officers about the special requirements of persons with disabilities. (3) If the Presiding Officer of a polling booth is satisfied that, due to disability, a person with disability is unable to recognize the symbols or to record vote without assistance, the presiding officer shall permit the elector to take a companion of not less than eighteen years of age to the voting compartment for recording/casting the vote. Thanks
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=22b3d99c5a&view=pt&search=sent&th=1454fcd6d19c3d73&siml=1454fcd6d19c3d73 1/2

4/11/2014

Gmail - Ensure All Possible Facilities are provided in Polling Booth for Disabled Voters

Satyendra Thakur

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=22b3d99c5a&view=pt&search=sent&th=1454fcd6d19c3d73&siml=1454fcd6d19c3d73

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