For the first time, Election Commission of India (ECI) will provide pick-up and drop facility to disabled voters in Lok Sabha elections, so around 186 differently-abled people from Mumbai have registered themselves for this service.
According to Lok-Satta, EC has hired 344 vehicles for different purposes and if needed they will hire more vehicles. The commission has developed a mobile application named as PWD using which the voters who have enrolled themselves as persons with disabilities (PwD) can inform the ECI in availing the pick-up and drop service. The app is available on Android Playstore. Special camps were held, specifically for the visually challenged voters, whereby they were informed about the new system. Government officers were also given instructions about how to behave with the PwDs.
Maharashtra has total of 8,73,30,484 voters, of whom 4,57,02,579 are males, while 4,16,25,819 are females. Total of 2,086 voters has been registered as ‘other’. The state has a total of 2,24,162 voters registered as PwD. The election commission will be organising state-wide booth level camps on February 23 and 24 to educate voters about VVPAT machines, new voter IDs and other initiatives taken by it, where the voters can even see the list to check their names, the officials said.