List of Lok Sabha poll candidates to be provided in form of Braille

Bengaluru: The Lok Sabha elections that are being held next year, in the state of Karnataka. The State Election Commission, will be providing a comprehensive list of candidates and their parties in the form of Braille for benefitting the visually impaired voters.

On Friday at the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) which was held in Karnataka, Surya Sen the joint chief electoral had told a source that steps will be taken towards making voting and EVM machines in the state more disabled friendly. The Visually impaired people who were present at the event spoke about how they have to be dependent on others at the time of elections, as the EVM machines only have numbers etched in Braille against names of candidates.

“One of their major concerns is the fact that they have to depend on others to find out which number corresponds to which candidate or party they want to vote for. They are also worried about EVM machines not audibly telling them who they’ve voted for, due to which they feel their votes are not validated. We will try to eliminate these concerns by providing the entire candidates’ list with numbers, all in Braille,” Sen said.

Nearly 4.5 lakh differently abled voters are registered in the state of Karnataka. “We will try to put this in place before the next Lok Sabha polls. As soon as the list is officially published, the State Election Commission will work towards recreating it in Braille,” he added.