EC ropes in visually challenged cricketer

The Election Commission has selected the national visually challenged cricket team captain Md. Jafar Iqbal as an icon to egg on the visually challenged people of the district to cast their vote. “The cricketer will encourage all the visually challenged voters to exercise their franchise in EVMs confidently,” said an official, adding that special ballot papers were prepared for this purpose.

Official sources say there are nearly 22,000 physically handicapped voters in the district and among them around 3,000 are visually challenged. Cuttack along with Khurda and Ganjam have been identified as pilot districts to implement the Braille system to facilitate them to use EVMs independently.