The Election Commission has made arrangements to issue braille-enabled ballot papers for Visually Impaired voters at all polling booths in the state.
Chief electoral officer F R Kharkongor said the EC initiative, a first in Meghalaya, will facilitate more than 800 visually impaired electorates to vote by a secret ballot.
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“We are making preparations to make the election more inclusive. We have already mapped over 4,500 persons with disabilities to ensure that they get priority at the polling booths,” Kharkongor told reporters on Friday.
He said the ballot paper pasted on the electronic voting machines (EVMs) will have the names and symbol of candidates in braille alphabets.
The visually challenged voters in the state have hailed the initiave of the poll panel. “The initiative will help us to cast votes independently,” said a visually impaired voter.
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The social welfare department has asked all community resource workers to be present at poll booths to assist the aged and the differently abled.
The election department, in close coordination with the Meghalaya Deaf Association, has also imparted training on sign languages to booth-level officials.