BENGALURU: The Election Commission’s Chunavana app has a facility where one could book a wheelchair if needed. But despite this, wheelchairs — at least one per booth — were neither available nor the infrastructure was conducive for the use of a wheelchair. There were stories from across the city on elders facing a harrowing time at the polling booths. Before the polls, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar had ordered a separate database of the disabled to be formed to make voting more inclusive and accessible. In Padmanabhanagar government school, senior citizens couldn’t climb down a flight of stairs and a lot of them were carried by police personnel.
Ramps were either not available or were inaccessible at several polling stations in the city.
V P Raman, 80, walks with the help of a stick. He came with his 78-year-old wife Bhavani Raman and wished there was a ramp at the entrance of Narayana PU College that houses polling booths 310 and 311. Also, though he was chauffeured by his daughter Sandhya Raman, her car didn’t help much as she could not park inside the college. “I wish the authorities allowed the car inside the campus at least for senior citizens,” she said.
Seventy-two-year-old wheelchair-bound Narayan Swamy cast his vote despite the difficulty in accessing the booth entrance in Mahadevapura in the city. Three people, including the booth level officer, had to lift the wheelchair over four steps to enable him to get to the ramp.
Murali Gowda, BLO, said, “When we checked if the college had a ramp, it did. But in the past 10 days, the college constructed a compound wall blocking the entrance to the ramp, and we are not allowed to make temporary arrangements like planks, according to the Election Commission. It has to be a permanent structure.”G N Nagaraj, president, Karnataka State Disabled and Caregivers Federation, said, “Though the Election Commission tried to help the disabled, it did not reflect on the ground. A lot of areas did not have railings and sound signages are unheard of.”
Sunil Jain, a physically-challenged voter from Chamrajpet constituency posted on his Facebook page pictures of his polling booth as well as his experience of voting. The ground at the entrance was cracked and there were broken steps too. “The polling booth wasn’t accessible. I was not allowed to take pictures inside the booth. The space inside was so constrained for a wheelchair to move. I had them shift the table to access the EVM. It was tough, but I am proud and happy that I voted with help. Polling booth 193 and 194 are not accessible. If you are differently-abled and if your polling stations are these, please take assistance of ASTHA,” he wrote. ASTHA is an NGO for the disabled.