Pune: The administration department is not aware of the exact number of differently abled persons participating in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. However, as per Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, the department has a list of 62,000 such persons who will cast their votes in this election. This includes about 12,782 such people from Pune, 16,633 from Sangli, 14,145 from Kolhapur, 10,000 from Satara and about 8,400 from Solapur.
Speaking about providing facilities to these people, District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said that apart from providing the basic facilities i.e. Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF), the differently abled persons will be provided with facilities of ramps and wheelchairs.
“We have procured about 550 wheelchairs which will be placed at different polling booths. We took details of people with different disabilities. We found that about 48,333 disability certificates were issued between 2012 and 2018 by the administration. Similarly, Zilla Parishad and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) reports mention of 28,484 voters with different abilities. Our booth level officers also collected data on such persons. We will try our best to map these people booth wise so that we are able to serve them better,” added Ram.
The District Collector also added that AMF will include the facility of drinking water, toilets, first aid, adequate space with ventilation, sufficient lighting, furniture like chairs, benches and a covered shelter.
