Scourge of insensitivity against specially-abled voters needs to end: CEC

The "scourge of insensitivity" towards specially-abled people needs to be defeated and the EC was undertaking time-bound measures to ensure that such voters get all facilities during the upcoming polls including the general elections next year, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said today.

Delivering his key note speech while inaugurating a two-day 'National Consultation on Accessible Elections' with CEOs of various states and disability rights experts here, he said while everything (all procedures and protocols) in this context is in place, there are still "a lot of gaps".

"That is because of insensitivity or to say the lack of sensitivity... I would urge the experts to prepare a road map to effectively deal with the scourge of insensitivity towards such vulnerable sections of the society," the CEC said.

He told the experts and government officials present that while "sky is the limit" for making recommendations as part of this national discussion, it is essential to "defeat insensitivity" on part of the common or abled people.

Rawat said the aim of the poll panel is to ensure that "no voter is left behind" during the course of the forthcoming polls and the Election Commission has decided to address this challenge with a short-term, medium-term and long-term goals and timelines.

"We want that some of the enabling provisions for specially-abled voters are put in place by the time polls to states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are held this year while the rest of the measures are put in place by the general elections slated next year, the CEC said.

The Commission has already declared 2018 as the "year of accessible elections".

During the event, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa said the poll-body envisages that elections in the country should be held without any discrimination and it was essential to "converge resources" that are available with the resourceful and