Kerala to ensure smooth voting day for disabled

Thiruvananthapuram: Ensuring smooth transportation of over a lakh disabled people in the state, Department of Women and Child Development and Department of Social Justice have decided to spare all of their vehicles for a disabled-friendly Lok Sabha election.

According to the statistics released by the Chief Electoral Office, there are around 1,25,189 disabled voters in the state with Kozhikode and Malappuram leading the list with 23,750 and 20,240 respectively.

The Chief Electoral Office has given strict direction to ensure a 100 per cent disabled-friendly election this year.  According to the direction, every person with a disability should be given transportation to the respective polling stations.

The Women and Child Department has given direction to form transportation committees to ensure smooth coordination and transportation of the disabled. An official of the Women and Child Department said they have around 258 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) offices across the state.

“We have directed all offices to ensure their own and hired vehicles for the purpose. We have enough vehicles to transport every disabled voter and there will not be an issue. We do the disabled survey and our anganwadis and ICDS offices have specific information on each person with disability in their jurisdiction,” said the official.

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