Kolkata: The EC on Tuesday held a special drive to include the visually challenged students of the Lighthouse for the Blind at Rashbehari as voters and for which they held an enrolment drive for the new voters.Minhaz Mallick and Kaushik Das, two Class X students who are now 19 years old, were elated as they got their EPICs on Tuesday from the EC officials as Arindam Niyogi, additional chief electoral officer of Bengal and Subrata Pal, deputy CEO were present in the school to encourage the new voters. Mallick and Das said that casting votes will ensure their rights as a citizen. The two officials told them how they can use the braille leaflet containing comprehensive information on voter enrolment and facilities available for specially challenged voters. Even these voters can vote from their home as many have 100% disability.However, a teacher of the school, Anjan Maity, said that though he had been voting regularly in all the elections since 2010, sometimes the polling officials don’t cooperate and he faced difficulty in casting votes as a visually challenged voter. Sonara Khatun a Class IX student who applied for the voter card on Tuesday said that she would surely be excited to vote in the assembly polls. “Though I cannot see but surely I can give my opinion in forming the govt. “Amiya Kumar Satpati, principal of the school, said 26 students applied for inclusion of their names in the voters’ list.Arindam Niyogi, addl CEO said, “We want specially challenged people to be included in the voters’ list and for which this special drive was done on Tuesday.”
