‘Vote from home’ move for elderly evokes mixed response in RR

Rangareddy: The first ever move of the State Election Commission (SEC)facilitating the elderly and the differently-abled persons to franchise their votes simply sitting in their homes evokes a mixed response from the people especially of Rangareddy district.

While a section of the electors welcome the Election Commission’s (EC)move, most of them have also raised concerns over the transparency in implementing the same.

During a press conference on Wednesday, the District Collector and Election Officer Rangareddy district Harish said, “The SEC took a decision to allow the elderly and disabled voters above 80 years of age to vote from home.” “These electors have to fill 12-D form and handover it to the concerned Booth Level Officers (BLO) within five days of the announcement of the election schedule,” he elaborated.

With over 500 centenarians and over a lakh disabled people living in the enclave, this district is geographically located in the central part of the Deccan plateau and spread over an area of 5,031 sq kms.

Out of a total 33,56,056 voters, there are 36,669 electors in the age group of 80-90 years in the district. Similarly, 6,336 electors fall under the 90-99 years age group, 371 electors in the age group of 100-109 years, six electors in the age group between 110-119 years and 155 fall under the age club of over 120 years in Rangareddy.

“For a total number of 33,56,056 voters enrolled in the district, a number of 3,369 polling centres have been established in Rangareddy,” he said, adding that the code of conduct has come into effect from October 9 in the district and will continue till December 5.

Welcoming the EC’s move to allow elderly and disabled people vote from their homes for the first time, Syed Afroz, President Telangana Disabled Welfare Society (TDWS) said, “The move will surely help the elderly and the differently-abled people from toiling hard while waiting in long queues at polling booths before casting their votes as was generally happens every time during the day of polling.”

Raising doubts over the way the new move rolled-out by the EC will be implemented, a community activist said, “the whole process should be implemented with letter-and-spirit as there is a chance of local leaders prevailing upon the BLO’s as generally happens during the elections. Most of the BLOs generally fund working in cahoots with the local political leaders that may risk the lives of the elderly electors.”