PANAJI: Forty visually impaired voters, including 24 blind  persons, from Sattari, Bicholim, Bardez, Tiswadi, Pernem and  Priol attended a training and awareness programme on the   election process.

As his board exams neared, Anshu Kumar Shakya, a class 12 student, felt unusually stressed and anxious. Pretty common among students, one would say. But his worries were entirely different. Shakya is bright, but he cannot see and needed a scribe to write his exams. His performance, he knew, depended not just on how hard he studied but also how well his answers were transcribed by his scribe.

Amid the plethora of issues being raised by the political parties as the campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls is assuming a feverish pitch, the people with visual and hearing impairments rue that every political party has turned a blind eye to their issues. The absence of the issues related with the rights of the disabled, job opportunities for them and providing a respectable position in the society irks most of the disabled.

CHENNAI: Chennai holds a special place in former West Indies cricket captain and legendary batsman Alvin Kallicharran’s heart as his mother Padma was born here. Each visit is a celebration, and he was here on Monday for the pre-launch of his upcoming book Colour Blind. The event was held at Amir Mahal where he spoke about cricket and the book.

At least 15,831 voters’ slips are being prepared in the Braille script for visually impaired voters in Jharkhand. Besides, Dummy Ballet Sheet and Voters Guide are also being printed in Braille for visually impaired voters in all the districts, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Manish Ranjan said on Saturday.

“These dummy ballet sheets will be made available in every polling station,” he said.

The visually impaired voters coming to the polling station will be informed about the process of voting through this dummy ballet sheet, so they can use their vote well.