CEC: Disabled, those above 80 yrs can vote from home in Telangana

For the first time in Telangana, there would be a facility available for all senior citizens aged 80 and above to vote from the comfort of their home, chief election commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar said on Thursday, adding that the facility will also be extended to persons with disabilities — those with more than 40% or more disability.

The state is slated to go to assembly polls later this year.

More than 31 million voters, including over 15 million women, have registered to exercise their franchise in the upcoming assembly elections in the southern state, the election commission announced on Thursday.

Speaking to mediapersons, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said a total of 811,000 new voters in the age group of 18-19 years have enrolled and would exercise their franchise for the first time.

The total number of voters also included 2,557 transgenders and 7,689 centenarians (above 100 years of age), Kumar added.

The CEC said polling would be held in 35,356 polling stations — 14,458 in urban areas and 20,898 in the rural areas.

Arrangements would be made for webcasting of polling in 27,798 polling stations, the CEC said.

He assured that the elections to the 119-member Telangana assembly would be done in a fair, transparent and free manner, without giving any scope for inducement.

“There will be 148 check-posts with monitoring of state borders with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh,” he added.

The enforcement agencies are directed to work in a coordinated approach. A special application would be used for better co-ordination and sharing of information “to dry up inflow of liquor, cash, freebies and drugs”, he said.

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