No water, selfie point, blues galore at pink polling booths

Ludhiana

The all-woman pink booths set up to elevate voting process has left electors disappointed in Ludhiana.

The election commission had set up nine pink polling stations, managed by female staff at JN Memorial Public Senior Secondary School, Spring Dale Public School, New Jain High School, Devki Devi Jain College for Women, Lodhi Club, Ranjit Modern Senior Secondary School, Government Primary School of Pratap Singh Wala and Mandi Mullanpur and Government Senior Secondary School (Girls), Jagraon, in the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency.

The polling staff deputed at New Jain School complained of lack of drinking water facility. Tarsem Raj, a police official, said they were arranging cold drinking water from the neighbourhood. “The water coolers here are not working,” he added.

Voters at one of the booths had to wait under the scorching sun due to absence of shade.

An Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker, Raj Kaur, said that there were many pregnant women and elderly persons waiting to cast their vote, but they had to stand in queue under the scorching sun. “We have ourselves arranged water for the staff and voters,” she said.

The school principal said their water purifier stopped functioning two days back but they got it repaired and even arranged a refrigerator for the polling staff.

In the other polling booths such as Devki Devi Jain College and Lodhi Club, the voters were disappointed with no selfie points.

A woman voter at Ranjit Modern Senior Secondary School said: “Me and my friends came all dressed up to click a picture at the selfie point but we were disappointed seeing no decoration and no selfie point.”