HYDERABAD: Nursing mothers, pregnant women, elderly and persons with disability (PwD), faced trouble in exercising their franchise even at the model polling stations. However, despite the odds, they showed perseverance to cast their vote.
Ratla Sravani, a nursing mother, came to cast her vote in SR Nagar, carrying her infant son. She travelled from Sadasivpet to vote. “My vote is still at the place of my parents. But since I stay in Sadashivpet, I came here to vote,” she told Deccan Chronicle.
Nenavath Heeramani of SR Nagar said that her daughter-in-law had delivered a child just two weeks ago at her maternal home in Medak’s Narsapur. But since she has a vote here, Heeramani travelled to Narsapur, bringing her daughter-in-law to the city to cast vote. “But we were forced to wait for a long time to cast our vote. They should have given some exception to nursing mothers and pregnant women,” she added. All these women cast their votes at the youth managed model polling station at SR Nagar.
Palakollu Shiva, a PwD voter, came to the polling station at Nehru Park in Sanathnagar, in his own tri-cycle. He was assisted to reach the booth by his nephew. But the polling station did not provide him with a wheelchair nor made any alternative arrangement to help others like him, and elderly voters.
Several elderly persons were seen struggling to walk to the booth, in the absence of wheelchairs. However, police personnel lent a helping hand to the elderly voters.
Despite being an all youth managed model polling station, people had to stand in long queues to cast their votes. While another model polling station located right opposite had separate Qs for male and female voters, this polling station had no such arrangement, forcing the voters to stand for longer hours. Slow voting process also added to the voters' woes.
