Old voters rule the polls

Navi Mumbai: The Panvel civic commissioner’s claims of providing palanquins for senior citizens and physically challenged

voters

to booths on upper floors turned out to be false assurances as no such facility was seen in some polling centres in Khanda colony, New Panvel and Kharghar nodes.

A senior citizen was forced to take the stairs till the first floor at a school in sector 6, Khanda Colony, where the polling booth was located. There were no volunteers to assist the senior citizens and persons with disabilities. The policemen on duty did not bother to help the senior citizen in reaching till the upper floor booths, some voters said.

Polling booths were set up on the first floor at two more voting centres at Balbharti Vidyalay in sector 4, Kharghar, and Banthia high school in New Panvel.

Pradnya Gaikwad, a candidate of Bahujan Mukti Party, said, “The government machinery has failed to coordinate with other agencies in making arrangements for senior citizens and handicapped persons. Elders were most inconvenienced due to polling booths set up on first floor. If it was unavoidable, the civic body should have made arrangements.”

Shyamala Mayekar (85) from Kharghar told TOI, “I have never missed out on any opportunity to vote in the last 60 years. I feel happy to be a part of this election system,’’ said Shyamala, who was assisted by her son as she has some difficulty while walking.

Ganpat Tamankar, 78, a resident of sector 13 in Kharghar said, “I have been voting during the zilla parishad elections in Kharghar but the Panvel civic election has given us more budgetary allocation to resolve civic issues in our ward. I am voting for a candidate who has assured better health care facilities for senior citizens.”