A meeting of the state-level operational committee “State Steering Committee on Accessible Election” was held for smooth voting at the Secretariat on Thursday under the chairmanship of Chief Electoral Officer Dr. BVRCC Purushottam. In the meeting, various points were discussed in detail with the committee members, Commissioner, Disabled People, Director Social Welfare, Director Education, Chief Engineer Public Works Department, Director General Information and representatives of various NGOs.
All facilities should be ensured at polling booths
Giving detailed guidelines in the meeting, Chief Electoral Officer Dr. BVRCC Purushottam said that every possible effort should be made to ensure all the minimum facilities “Assure Minimum Facility” (AMF) provided by the Commission at all polling booths in the state. He directed the Social Welfare Department to provide an updated list to the Election Department every three months on the basis of eligibility date of 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October in view of including 100 percent of the disabled pensioners registered in the department in the PWD category in the voter list. He directed that special attention should be paid to this in the upcoming Special Summary Revision Program (SSR). He said that special attention will be given to AMF facility to PWD voters by identifying them according to their polling booth. He directed that District Sweep PWD icons should be marked at the district level. The Chief Electoral Officer has also directed NIEPVD to prepare Braille-based voter awareness related promotional material.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer gave detailed presentation
In the meeting, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr. Vijay Kumar Jogdande gave a detailed presentation regarding the “State Steering Committee on Accessible Election”. He informed that as per the instructions of the Commission, a total of 03 types of committees have been formed in the state since the year 2018, in which meetings are held from time to time at the state, district and Legislative Assembly level. In the presentation, the Additional Chief Electoral Officer informed that the percentage of disabled people in the age group of 30-39 is the highest in the state. He said that the main objective of the commission is to remove the lack of minimum facilities provided to the disabled at the polling booths such as ramp, wheel chair, toilet as per convenience, drinking water, shed, sitting facility etc.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Kishan Singh Negi, Assistant Chief Electoral Officer Mastu Das, Additional District Magistrate, Dehradun Jai Bharat Singh, Joint Director, Higher Education Dr. AS Uniyal, Joint Director, Social Welfare Geeta Ram Nautiyal, Deputy Director, Information Ravi Bijarnia, Joint Director, Leporacy, Jitendra Negi along with representatives of Secondary Education, Public Works Department NIEPVD, Sarva Kalyan Vikas Samiti, Divya Educational Society, Nanhi Duniya, Arunima Foundation, Chashair Home, Bal Vanita Ashram were present in the meeting.