NUWAKOT, May 12: Local election authorities have prepared two disable-friendly polling centers in Nuwakot and one in Rasuwa, with the aim of making voting easy for people with disability on the Election Day on Sunday.
Adarsha Multiple Campus and the building of the existing Madanapur VDC have been designed as disable-friendly polling centers in Nuwakot district.
According to the Election Office of Nuwakot, these two polling stations have 1,535 voters. District Election Officer Janardan Adhikari said that they don't have the exact data of voters with disability in two centers, “but the area has many disable voters.”
“We have developed small tracks for people on wheelchairs to reach these two polling centers. We have also prepared to deploy our staffers at the polling centers to help visually impaired people other physically challenged voters to cast their votes,” said Adhikari.
He informed Republica that the physically challenged voters don't need to line up for the voting process and that they can directly cast their votes to the ballot box.
Similarly, the District Election Office of Rasuwa said that it has set a disable-friendly polling center at the office of the Gosaikunda Rural Municiplaity.
“People with disability are physically challenged. This is the main reason behind our disable-friendly preparations,” said Nabin Khaling, district election officer of Rasuwa.
He further said that the Election Commission (EC) has asked them to develop disable-friendly infrastructure at this center only, adding that the center has 438 voters with disability.
According to EC, 125 ramps have been constructed to help voters with disability to cast their votes.
"Beside this, some schools have constructed disable-friendly buildings which are being used as polling centers," said EC Spokesperson Surya Prasad Sharma.
Sharma said that the EC has not arranged for transportation for the voters with disability to reach the polling centers. "Their family members can help them," said Sharma.