- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, January 25, 2022 : Tripura government is planning to transform all polling stations into a friendlier one for the ‘Divyangjan’ (specially-abled persons), thereby urging the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide special focus on voting rights of these citizens, said Chief Secretary Kumar Alok on Tuesday.
Addressing at the programme of ‘National Voters’ Day 2022 organized at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan here in Agartala on Tuesday morning, CS Kumar Alok said “Chief Electoral Officer’s office of Tripura government has taken cognizance of the new facilities amalgamated to confirm the voting rights of challenged people. Accordingly, a good number of schools which are marked as polling stations have been made friendly for specially-abled persons”.
The Chief Secretary requested the CEO’s office to ensure that all polling stations in Tripura are transformed into ‘Divyangjan’ friendly polling booths before the assembly election slated to be held in 2023.
“The government should take up whatever reforms necessary to improve the polling stations to that level. The state government needs to find out resources to deal with this important issue as this particular resource is significantly required to solve the problem”, he added.
Speaking in the program, Kumar Alok also laid special focus on the importance of youth participation in the electoral process as they need to decide the kind of governance, political structure and desired policy for the betterment of the society.
“The youths will live much longer than the aged citizens. Henceforth, their role in the entire process of election is significant. The Election Commission of India had felt the need of initiating special drives to enroll new youths in the electoral rolls. Accordingly, such drives have been conducted in four spots across Tripura and approximately, 41,000 new voters have been enrolled in the rolls”, the Chief Secretary said.
In the programme, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kiran Gitte, DM of West Tripura district Debapriya Bardhan and other higher officials were present.
