Rajasthan polls: 30% booths do not fulfil EC guidelines

Ahead of the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, 30% of the polling stations are in a bad shape and does not fulfil the Election Commission's guidelines.

According to the report compiled by the chief electoral officer of Rajasthan, as many as 6,000 schools are in a bad shape.

Around 51,796 schools have been identified as polling booths. According to the report forwarded to the Panchayati Raj department, the polling booths do not have even have basic infrastructure like electricity. The other flaws mentioned in the report include safety and accessibility.

The EC has already launched a drive to add more 'Divyang' (specially abled) in the rolls and provide them basic facilities to bring them to booths under the ‘Sugam Matdan’ (convenient polling) campaign. As per the report, around 1500 polling booths lack ramps, mandatory for specially abled voters.

Reacting to the report by the CEO, Panchayati Raj Secretary Kunji Lal Meena has ordered the launch of development works for the polling booths. As per a circular dated August 16, the district collectors and chief executive officers (CEO) of Zila Parishads have been told to take necessary action in the coming days.

According to the CEO's office, all the 51,796 booths spread across 200 Assembly constituencies will have an Electronic Voting Machine and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine.