Team Herald
PANJIM: The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Goa as a part of creating election awareness on ethical voting among the Person with Disabilities (PwDs) voters and to encourage them to participate maximum in the electoral process in the forthcoming General Assembly Election for Goa 2022 has organised non classification, non Ranking Para Badminton tournament in standing and wheelchair category for Person with locomotor Disabilities and Person with Hearing Impairment voters from Goa.
The competition was held at SAG Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Campal.
The winner of the competition were as follows: In the standing category, Gopal Kuncolienkar(first place), Raju Magdum(second place) and Nigel Lourenco(third place).
Wheelchair category: Mosik Sayed (first place), Moises Rodrigues(second place) and Vishant Nagvekar(third place).
In the hearing Impairment category: Isideirio Oliveira (first place), Prasad Joshi (second place) and Justine Fernandes (third place).
Atisha Mapari received the special prize in the women’s category.
The winner was awarded a gold medal along with cash prize of Rs 3,000 while the runner-up received silver medal plus Rs 2,000 while the third place had to settle for bronze medal and Rs 1000. The participants were presented with a certificate. Additional CEO, Prakash Kamat gave away the prizes in the presence of Reporter, Sudesh Gaude, Nodal officer Accessible Election, Prakash Kamat and member State Advisory Board on Disability shared the message of CEO, Shri Kunal IAS urging Person with Disabilities employees to be part of polling Booths to be manned by Person with Disabilities. Assured minimum facilities pamphlets prepared by office of the CEO were distributed to all the participants.
Additional CEO Narayan Sawant IAS, Joint CEO Aisha Vaigankar, Additional Director DHE Gervasio Mendes, Nodal Officer for Accessible Election Sudesh Gaude, State Icon for person with Disabilities, Taha Haaziq, Representatives of various NGOs. Dr. Rajan Mathew, Govt. College Quepem Dr. Sushant Haldankar DMC College Mapusa, Dr Debashish Bagchi, Parvatibai Chowgule College, Elroy Pinto, Joseph Vaz College, Clifton Fernandes, Nirmala Institute of Education, Melinda Pereira, Fr. Agnel College Pillar , Sunny Kanekar, Vidhya Probhodini College were the match referees for the tournament.
Ear;ier the inaugural match was played between Additional CEO Shri Narayan Sawant IAS, Dr.Gervasio Mendes ,Additional Director higher Education and Ms.Aiyesha Vaigankar Jt.CEO ,Shri Sudesh Nanda Gaude, Nodal officer Accessible Election.
Around 36 persons with locomotor disabilities and 28 persons with hearing impairment participated in the tournament.
