Tableaus offer virtual tour of polling stations to 'special' voters

KOLKATA: In a significant stride to ensure 100 percent participation of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in the election process the South 24-Parganas, the district administration has launched "Ability Express" in the form of three tableaus that will take the voters on a virtual tour of a real polling booth.

District Magistrate Antara Acharya, who is the District Election Officer (DEO) also, flagged off the tableaus from the campus of the DM's office in Alipore. The tableaus will travel to every nook and corner of the district to facilitate and encourage the PWD voters to cast their votes.

"The Election Commission wants to ensure that no voter should be left behind in the upcoming Assembly elections. The PWD voters often complain of difficulty in exercising their franchise after entering polling booths. In order to offer them a smooth voting experience, it is for the first time that any district administration in Bengal has taken a unique initiative of offering these voters a virtual tour of the polling station,," Acharya said.

The DEO felicitated five disabled persons who will act as SVEEP (Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation Programme) icons and will take an active part in encouraging the PWD voters. The five persons who have overcome their disabilities to carve a niche for themselves in the society will not only travel across the district to encourage the voters but the story of the challenges they faced and how they overcame those will also be aired in the form of video and audio messages.

The South 24 Parganas district that has 31 assembly constituencies (ACs) has 11279 polling booths - the highest in the state.

The number of voters in the district are 8191400 out of which over 90000 are PWD voters.