For the first time, the Election Commission is involved in an audit of polling stations for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, being held on Tuesday. Colaba Assembly segment in Mumbai has been chosen to assess if polling stations are disabled-friendly, as mandated by the Supreme Court.

In 2007, the apex court had laid down guidelines to make the election process disabled-friendly so as to ensure that the differently-abled were able to cast their votes with dignity. Elaborate arrangements were thus made for the 2009 parliamentary elections, especially by making available ramps and having back-up Braille ballot papers.

Activist Javed Abidi, who fought with others to make the election process inclusive and had close to 100 associates working for the cause across the country, said the Supreme Court guidelines were by and large complied with in the last parliamentary elections.

This is, however, the first occasion when an audit of polling stations is being conducted in association with the Election Commission of India. Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Chakrabarty said the results may be used by the EC for its future endeavors.

Priyanka Malhotra, who works for the differently-abled, is conducting the exercise in Mumbai. She said that “around 50 per cent of the 20-odd polling stations that she covered at Colaba on Sunday” were found to be disabled-friendly. On Monday, she covered four more segments in South Mumbai, following which she said that “around 80 per cent of the polling stations in those constituencies were found to have adequate arrangements for the differently-abled”. Malhotra had met Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla at a school function and volunteered to undertake the study. She plans to present a report on the audit to the CEC.

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