EC to introduce polling booths managed by women

The full Bench of the Election Commission (EC) is not coming to the state as of now, said a senior official of the commission in the city on Thursday.

A senior official of the EC on Thursday told media that the full Bench of the Election Commission is unlikely to come to the state this week. According to a senior official at the commission, there is a thin chance of the ECI announcing the polling dates in the state this week.

The EC on Thursday announced an elaborate arrangement which were being taken to conduct the polls in a better way. For the first time the EC is going to introduce polling booths managed by women. There will be altogether around 1767 female polling booths across the state during the Assembly polls this year. Burdwan has 619 such booths which is the highest among other districts.

The purpose of move was to promote women. Various polling booths have already been identified which will be manned by the female members. The commission has also announced 2,300 model polling stations where certain facilities will be available to the voters. In a model polling station there will be a ramp for the voters. Toilets, electricity facilities must also be there in a model polling booth.

For the elderly and physically challenged people the commission has come up with a unique idea of opening polling stations on the ground floor of a building so that the elderly people do not need to climb a staircase. In the last few elections that EC had observed that many elderly people face serious problems while climbing up the staircase. Keeping this mind the senior officials of the commission is planning to set up around 1,259 polling stations at the ground floor of various buildings.

The Commission said that it was taking various initiatives to ensure that the vote which is cast in favour of a candidates do not get transferred to other. When asked about the possibility of transfer of the vote due to some technical error of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), a senior official of the commission on Thursday said that all the measures have been taken to ensure that such incidents do not take place.