Amid lack of facilities, oldies beat the heat to cast their precious vote

NAGPUR: Despite the mercury hovering at 43.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday, a majority of voters stood in long queues to vote with enthusiasm.

Amid complaints of absence of facilities for the

polling

staff as well as voters, even

senior

citizens were seen waiting for half an hour to an hour to cast their vote, though demand for separate queue for old and sick was heard at some polling

booths

.

Manisha Chaudhari, an entrepreneur, told TOI that at the IT park booth there was no arrangement of

water

and senior citizens could be seen restless. Some of them had carried their own water and were sharing with others. “The authorities should have made arrangement for water considering the 40 degrees and above temperatures for the last few days. I admire the oldies who stood in the queue to vote,” she said.

Dr Sanjay Deshpande complained no arrangement was made for creating any

shade

for the voters at a booth near the FCI godown. “Citizens were standing in queue with very narrow space to move. There was no arrangement of water too, which is the basic right of every person be it staff or the voters,” he said.

Ashok Sawarkar, a BJP worker in east Nagpur, told TOI that there was no arrangement of water at three booths — Prashant High School, Jingle Bell Covent and Adarsh Vidya Mandir in Hiwri Nagar. “The queue was longer and almost everyone had to wait for almost an hour for their turn to come. We had to arrange water at these places,” he said.

Sujata Devhare, who visited Husamiya Girls High School in Shanti Nagar, was so disturbed to see the condition of elders waiting in the queue under the

sun

that she demanded a separate line for them.

Dr Rajesh Atal told TOI that at Sheshrao Wankhede school in Ramdaspeth, the queue was too long and the

heat

was so exhausting that many persons left the place without

voting

.

There was a serpentine queue in Jawahar Vidyalaya in Nandanvan. Voters were demanding separate queue for women and elders as they had to stand in the scorching heat in the open.

At one booth in a corporation school in Sonegaon, senior citizens were allowed to vote as priority. Ramesh Gupte, 78, told TOI that he did not want any privileges and wanted to stand in queue. “I told them if they wanted us to vote comfortably, they should have made arrangements for shade. Yet they told me to vote first breaking the queue,” he said.