Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Kaul has issued a circular clarifying guidelines for making polling stations in the state voter-friendly and ensuring infrastructure in connection with the Lok Sabha elections.
Proper signs should be placed at the polling stations to guide voters about the location of polling booths, available facilities and voter assistance booths. These should be blue and white in English and Malayalam. The guidelines state that the letters should be of standard size and placed at an appropriate height and should be easily visible to voters from a distance.
Furniture in polling booths should not be damaged in any way. When returning after polling, ensure that electrical appliances are switched off, taps are closed and notices pasted on the walls are removed.
The District Election Officer should ensure that post-poll waste at the polling stations is disposed of following green protocol. Each polling location should have adequate number of toilets for men and women.
Arrangements should be made with the Department of Social Justice to provide required wheelchairs for differently abled voters at the polling stations. Adequate chairs and benches should be provided at each polling station for disabled voters, pregnant women and senior citizens.
The guidelines also state that de-congestion measures such as engaging volunteers to manage queues, distributing tokens, etc., can also be taken.
