SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Team Herald
MARGAO: On the sidelines of the District Election Officers (DEO) appeal for cent per cent voting, Margao citizens presented a representation to the South District Election Officer, Asvin Chandru, to examine the possibility of voting arrangements for the inmates of several old age homes across Goa in general and South Goa in particular.
Appreciating the efforts undertaken by the DEOs towards achieving 100 per cent voting, these citizens drew the attention of the authorities towards several old age homes in the South Goa parliamentary constituency wherein hundreds of senior citizens and disabled people are housed.
Some of these inmates are registered in the election rolls of the same location where they presently reside, others are registered in the rolls of their original place of residence.
Secondly, due to difficulties faced by the management of these old age homes, these voters are unable to exercise their voting rights either on account of lack of transport facilities or due to the risk of the inmates going astray and getting lost.
“We wonder why the concerned BLOs of these areas don't bring this issue before the authorities concerned,” they said.
They further requested the District Collector to explore the possibility of granting these voters the opportunity of casting their votes through home voting options.
“We had visited one such home, at Cana Benaulim, and filled up 28 numbers of Form 12D of the inmates/caretakers, which we have submitted to the District Election Officer with a kind request to consider these voters with the home voting option, as a special case, they said.
The District Collector was also requested to depute some officers to the home at Cana Benaulim and the other homes in the constituency to ascertain what best can be done so as to facilitate them to cast their votes.
