CHENNAI: The Election Commission of India on Wednesday assured the Madras High Court that all necessary steps will be taken for ensuring easy access to disabled voters in all the polling stations in the state before the polling on April 23.
The submission was made by advocate Niranjan Rajagopalan, standing counsel for the ECI, before the first bench of Chief Justice Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan when a petition filed by activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar, in this regard, came up for hearing.
All necessary steps are being taken for providing the required facilities for the voters, including the disabled voters, elders and women to have easy access to the polling booths, he said, promising to look into the deficiencies pointed out by the counsel for the petitioner Poongkhulali.
Niranjan also informed that steps have been taken to identify the disabled voters and ensure they exercise their democratic duty to vote in the polls.
Advocate General P S Raman submitted that the chief secretary convened a meeting with all the district collectors on March 12 and instructed them to comply with the guidelines of the ECI and file compliance report on the status of completion of arrangement of facilities including provision of ramps in all polling booths.
He also told the court that all steps are being taken in compliance with the directions of the ECI to ensure all the voters are able to have free and smooth access to the polling booths including the disabled voters.
Poongkhulali submitted that the ECI has been stating that all necessary steps are being taken to provide easy access but there are several polling stations which lack even the assured minimum facilities. She submitted a rejoinder to the affidavit of the ECI pointing out the deficiencies with photographs of various polling stations. Recording the submissions, the bench posted the matters after three weeks for further consideration.