The November 30 Telangana Assembly elections will be refreshingly different, thanks to ‘thematic polling stations’ to be set up across the city this time round.
As mandated by the Election Commission of India, the city will have a certain number of polling stations exclusively managed by women, persons with disabilities (PWD) and the youth. This is to encourage voters belonging to those sections to turn up at the polling stations, said GHMC Commissioner and District Election Officer D.Ronald Rose.
“At the polling stations managed by women, all the staff, right from the booth level officer, will be female. There will also be certain facilities provided to the women voters there,” he said.
Likewise, each of the PWD polling stations will be managed completely by four to five staff who are physically challenged. Certain disabled-friendly facilities will be provided in the polling stations to make it convenient to the officers and staff with disabilities.
The youth-managed polling stations will be completely run by first-time voters, Mr.Ronald Rose said. The average age of the staff is pegged to be around 23 years.
Tentatively, it has been decided that a total of 75 polling stations, or five per constituency, will be managed by women, 15 by persons with disabilities, and 15 by youth.
Plans are to increase the number of polling stations managed by physically challenged to 75, based on the availability of staff, Mr.Ronald Rose informed.
Staffing by women officers will not be a problem, as a large number of teachers recruited as polling officers are female. A concession has been given to the women polling officers this time. They need not spend the previous night at the respective polling stations allotted to them. Instead, they can return home and come back early on the polling day. This is in view of a large number of polling stations in the city being women-unfriendly, with small and dingy rooms, and dysfunctional toilets.
However, women designated as presiding officers will not have this luxury. As the polling paraphernalia would be under their custody, they will have to stay in the polling stations during the night.
One more facility to be extended to the polling staff will be transportation provided from various locations up to the distribution point. “Earlier, transportation would be provided from DRC (Distribution, Reception, Counting) centres to the polling stations. But this time, we are making efforts to provide buses from different points of the city so that the employees can take the bus at their nearest location,” Mr.Ronald Rose said.
